Compiled by Laura Slattery
Quote of the Week . . .
"Some are very stupid products, stupid ideas. But it doesn't matter."
- Bart Becht, the Dutch chief executive of household detergent giant Reckitt Benckiser, inadvertently denigrates the work of his own innovation department, which has created an Air Wick with two liquid refills giving off alternating scents and a Finish dishwasher tablet with a soluble wrapper that doesn't have to be removed. It was later claimed he meant "simple and obvious" ideas.
The Numbers. . .
80The number of weddings that Maybefriends.com, the dating company bought by Denis O'Brien's Saongroup.com this week, claims to be responsible for since it started matchmaking in 2004. The Republic's most popular dating website, Anotherfriend.com, says its matches have resulted in more than 200 happy knot-tying events.
€1.45 millionThe going rate for a flotation reward, as four directors at Smurfit Kappa share a one-off bonus of €5.8 million from private equity shareholders in connection with the "successful" initial public offering of the world's largest cardboard box maker.
€2 billionPossible loss to the Irish economy of an influenza pandemic, according to a study by Roche, which just happens to make antivirals.
Good Week . .
Engineers Ireland"Affairs of the heart" were on the tip of the engineering body's tongues in Galway this week as it celebrated Engineered! A Week of Wonder, an event designed to inspire school pupils to explore a career in engineering.
In a nicely synchronised marketing moment, it used St Valentine's Day to sell the Republic's biomedical engineering industry, which makes four out of every five cardiovascular stents used in the world.
Cylinders, hourglasses and bellsZara and Mango shoppers can celebrate. A new Spanish government report confirms suspicions that some women have straight-up-and-down "cylinder" figures, some are curvy "hourglasses" and others are pear-shaped "bells".
Armed with this new information, the government is hoping to stop the Spanish fashion industry making clothes only for six-foot waifs by overhauling its sizing system.
Bad Week . . .
MicrosoftThe software king must be accustomed to rejection by now. After all, it spent a decade sending out its unloved Office assistant Clippy to face the inevitable spurning of Word users who did not want help writing a letter. But it still won't have been happy about Yahoo cold-shouldering its offer of a union - a marriage dubbed Microhoo - or the revelation that Yahoo has been in talks with News Corp behind its back.
PickfordsThe 313-year-old removal company survived the economic slump of the Napoleonic wars, shrugged off the mid-19th century decline of the canal industry and came back from a period of 20th-century nationalisation, but it doesn't look like it can stay immune to the ravages of the US housing market, as its parent firm Sirva files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and says it is likely to wind up its UK and Irish businesses.
