Ananova:

Sir Alan Sugar has stepped down as chairman of Amstrad, the company he founded 40 years ago.

But the entrepreneur, best known in recent years as the star of reality TV show The Apprentice, does not intend to retire.

The self-made multimillionaire will continue to be involved with his other business interests, which include Amshold, Amsprop, Amsair and Viglen computers.

Sir Alan said his resignation was planned after Sky acquired Amstrad in 2007.

"This is a move that has been planned for a while and it's the right time for me to step down from my role at Amstrad," he said.

"The past 40 years have seen Amstrad grow from a start-up business to the success story that it is today, which is credit to the talented and loyal team here."

After starting off life as the son of an East End tailor, Sir Alan, 61, now has a net worth of £830m and was ranked 92nd in the 2008 Sunday Times Rich List.

He left school at 16 and founded Amstrad (Alan Michael Sugar TRADing) at 21.

The company was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1980 and sold to BSkyB, which owns Sky News, in a £125m deal in July 2007, earning Sir Alan a £34.5m windfall.

Most of Sir Alan's wealth now comes from his property portfolio, rather than business ventures however.

He will be back in the boardroom dishing out no-nonsense advice to budding entrepreneurs in the fifth series of The Apprentice next year.