Martha Lane Fox sells £4.6m of lastminute shares

Dot-com darling Martha Lane Fox has sold two million shares in lastminute.com - the company that she co-founded with Brent Hoberman in 1998.

The sale, which represents 20 per cent of her stake, nets her a cool £4.6m with which to go house hunting - her next priority, according to a report in the Telegraph.

Lane Fox stepped down from her position as MD at lastminute.com in November last year.

Her departure coincided with the company's first annual profit - a milestone that appeared to inspire Lane Fox to head off in search of a new challenge.

Lane Fox sold her two million shares at 230p, which represents a very strong recovery from the sub-100p lows of a year ago. She still holds 8.2 million shares in the online travel company.

Shares in lastminute.com closed down 3.5p on the news and continued to drop this morning but the size of the stake that Lane Fox has retained suggests she still has a great deal of faith in her 'baby'.