Compiled by Laura Slattery.
THE NUMBERS
38Percentage fall in the share price of omnipresent internet overseer Google since it peaked at the vertiginous heights of $747.24 per share in November. Investors were spooked this week by a report that clicks on Google ads in the US are flat year-on-year.
40 millionNumber of people worldwide who take Prozac, the antidepressant manufactured by Eli Lilly that does not work any better than a placebo except for the most severely depressed, according to a major new study of previously unseen drug trials.
€899 millionRecord fine imposed by the European Commission on Microsoft, the first company to break an antitrust ruling in 50 years of EU competition policy.
€3.1 billion
Most recent net quarterly profit ($4.7 billion) posted by Microsoft, which will have to sacrifice just two weeks' cash flow to pay the EU's latest fine for abusing its dominant position in the software market.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
"It is a bit like trying to fight terrorists. Nine times out of 10 you don't actually see them." - Irish Life & Permanent finance director Peter Fitzpatrick explaining that the trouble with dispelling doubts, whispers and "unfounded" market rumours is that they are just so difficult to track down.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK 2
"I'm not naïve . . . I'm not in the mood when someone is talking about interoperability to accept this as change. First show me. Talk is cheap, flouting the rules is expensive, so let's wait and find the reality in this context." Competition commissioner Neelie Kroes hopes this week's fine will close a "dark chapter" of non-compliance by software behemoth Microsoft, but she isn't ruling out further penalties.
GOOD WEEK
TV on the InternetSocial commentator Peaches Geldof once labelled Channel 4's Hollyoaks "the king of soaps" and she was right: the show has topped the list of most popular programmes to be streamed or downloaded from the broadcaster's 4oD catch-up broadband service since it was introduced March. Channel 4 said users of 4oD have doubled since January 1st, thanks in part to the BBC's marketing push for its seven-day iPlayer service.
Parmesan cheeseThe European Court of Justice, the highest court in the European Union, has upheld the "protected destination of origin" (PDO) status for the pleasantly stinky pasta dish sprinkle, meaning only authentic cheese made in northern Italy and bearing the name Parmigiano Reggiano can be sold as Parmesan - in Europe, anyway. Outside Europe, anyone with a vat of cow's milk and a grater can sell "parmesan".
BAD WEEK
Häagen-DazsThe luxury ice-cream maker has a sickly sweet problem. Honeybee hives in the US are being wiped out by colony collapse disease (CCD), threatening the production of some $15 billion worth of crops as well as 25 of its 60 flavours. "We want to keep these little heroes buzzing," says Häagen-Dazs, which is duly launching awareness-raising flavour number 61, Vanilla Honey Bee.
Family businessesProductivity at family-owned firms is less than half that of companies where the senior management doesn't all come from the same gene pool, or so the Central Statistics Office says. But the main drag on the money spun per worker wasn't inter-generational sparring or intra-familial tension, but a reluctance to use the internet and lower levels of capital investment.
