Compiled by Laura Slattery.

Quote of the Week

"It's time for Tony to step aside, let somebody else lead the board . . . The board is really too old; they don't understand the internet age."

- Denis O'Brien, controller of an 11 per cent stake in Independent News & Media, mischievously calls for the retirement of Sir Anthony O'Reilly, dismissing the whole idea of "silver surfers" in the process.

The Numbers...

€9.83Closing price for Bank of Ireland's shares on Wednesday - its lowest since May 2004 - after it blamed turmoil in international money markets for a downgrading of its future earnings growth.

€18.65The bank's record-high share price last December, when it had yet to be infected by the "don't-touch-the-banks" investor sentiment and a sharper-than- expected correction in the housing market.

Bad Week..

Transport workers

Dublin Bus drivers from the Harristown depot are warming their hands by the picket fire because they want to start and finish their working day at the depot, close to where many of them live. Compared to the demands of striking French transport workers, who want to be able to retire on a full pension at the age of 50, the Dublin bus drivers' wish seems a modest one.

Islamic finance

Costs could become a lot higher for firms that want to exploit the fast-growing, $70 billion (€47.85 billion) Islamic finance market: multinational property house HDG Mansur has been told it must treat the workers who clean its offices with "honour and dignity" (by paying them a decent wage) before its new Islamic fund can be ruled truly compliant with Sharia law.

Good Week . . .

Armchair pundit power

Fan website MyFootballClub has bought non-league English team Ebbsfleet United, meaning 20,000 people who paid £35 (€48.91) each to build a £700,000 takeover pot now have the power to vote on player selection, formation and transfers. But should they have bought Harchester United instead?

Hugh Grant

The semi-retired Four Weddings and a Funeral star won't have to boost his bank balance with a dodgy romcom anytime soon. The actor has made a blockbuster-sized profit by selling an Andy Warhol portrait of Elizabeth Taylor at a Christie's auction in New York for $21 million (€14.35 million) - more than five times what he paid for the painting just six years ago.