Compiled by
LAURA SLATTERY
6.7 million– number of paying customers at social gaming company Zynga in the first nine months of 2011. The Farmville developers are planning to hold an initial public offering on November 24th.
Pay day
If she watched her former boss James Murdoch squirming his way through a parliamentary grilling yesterday, it must have occurred to Rebekah Brooks, former chief executive of News International, that at least it wasn’t her turn. The prospect of any inquiries must be lessened somewhat by the size of the payoff she received on her departure: some £1.7 million, the use of a central London office in a prime location and a chauffeur-driven limousine – presumably one with blacked-out windows, you know, for privacy.
"I do synchronized swimming, dear. I don't play football. You'll have to find another analogy for me" -IMF managing director Christine Lagarde politely requests that a journalist asking about "the IMF's goal posts" rephrase the question.
Dictionary corner: 'Volcker rule'
Washington is busy drafting legislation for the so-called Volcker rule, which proposes to restrict US banks that accept deposits from making bets with shareholder money, or from backing private equity and hedge funds. (In advance of the restrictions, Citigroup, the third-biggest lender in the US, invested around $800 million of shareholders’ money in its own private-equity and hedge funds during the third quarter.)
The 300-page proposed rule was named after former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker, so what does he have to say about it?
He says it’s “much more complicated” than he would like.
STATUS UPDATE
Rolling in the digital: With 26 per cent market share, digital album sales in the UK have now smashed their 2010 total. Adele's 21 tops the chart (as it does in physical sales too).
Profit prune:Marks Spencer's sales slumped in the April to September period. For Christmas, the retailer has hitched its wagon to the fading but still giant star that is the X Factor.
Facebook about-face: Facebook has now removed several rape joke group pages, including one called "you know she's playing hard to get when you're chasing her down an alleyway".
