LAURA SLATTERYlooks back at the week in business

COURT DATE

They once managed a friendly alliance, but now the souring relations between Hewlett Packard and Oracle are set to be thrashed out in a courtroom by their respective lawyers.

In the latest clash, HP is suing Oracle over a chip dispute, claiming Oracle behaved illegally when deciding that future versions of its database software would not support a line of HP servers using an Itanium chip manufactured by Intel. Oracle insists the chip is being phased out (which Intel denies) and calls the lawsuit "malicious and meritless", while HP says Oracle's decision will hurt its clients and force customers to instead buy Sun Microsystems servers . . . manufactured by Oracle.

The background to the tensions is that HP's ex-boss, Mark Hurd, joined Oracle last year - an appointment that saw HP threaten legal action on the grounds that Oracle would be able to "exploit the knowledge of HP's strengths and weaknesses" as a result of hiring Mr Hurd. It looks like Oracle has found one.

STATUS UPDATE

Pandora rocks:Californian radio streaming service Pandora has floated with a valuation of $2.6 billion and seen its share price rocket, despite the fact it has not yet reported a profit.

Trademark trouble:A London art event called the Great Exhibition 2012 has received a threat of legal action by Olympics organisers over its use of "2012". Can you copyright a year?

Cloudy forecast:Aviation ash cloud chaos continues, with Australia's Qantas forced to cut growth projections after flight cancellations due to the spread of ash from a Chilean volcano.

THE QUESTION

Is the Hong Kong Stock Exchange a dream passport to Asia for western firms?

From Prada to Samsonite, companies from Europe and the US are lining up to take their place on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in a bid to tap into the lucrative and fast-growing Chinese market. Luxury goods firms are the first in line, with US handbags house Coach and Italian accessories maker Salvatore Ferragamo hoping to emulate the likes of L'Occitane, the cosmetics brand that listed on the Hang Seng last year - the first French company to do so.

It's not just the fancy fashion brands that are eyeing a float, however: even Manchester United is rumoured to be interested in going public on Asia's third-largest index as a gateway to its Far Eastern fans. While the Hang Seng though is an attractive option because it traditionally generates a lot of attention from retail investors, some recent IPOs have been less than impressive.

"God of luggage" Samsonite made its debut this week and it proved as tough as its suitcases. The upmarket 101-year-old US company raised $1.25 billion via an IPO priced at the bottom of its indicative range. Shares tumbled 11 per cent in early trading. Still, although Samsonite's IPO was scaled back, at least it didn't have to cancel altogether, as Australian mining company Resourcehouse has done.

The weak sentiment surrounding Samsonite doesn't bode well for Milan fashion house Prada. It was hoping to raise as much as $2.6 billion in its imminent Hong Kong IPO, which is set to be priced today. However, the company is reported to have revised down the ceiling on the share price range, putting the maximum size of the IPO at $2.3 billion instead.

SHOP TALK

Europe is not proving a happy place to be shifting jumpsuits and maxi dresses for the world's two biggest fashion retailers - Spain's Inditex and Sweden's Hennes & Mauritz. Zara-owner Inditex, the world number one, posted a rise in profits this week, but this was down to its forays into emerging markets such as China, where sales offset muted demand in its home market and the strain of higher cotton costs. Consequently, Inditex has decided not to worry about Europe so much and press ahead with global expansion. H&M, which makes a larger proportion of its revenues in Europe, missed its sales forecasts. The company, which also owns H&M's more grown-up sister store Cos, has been hit harder than Inditex when it comes to rising input costs, as it buys a larger proportion of its garments in Asian countries, where wages for textile factory workers have increased.

"Let us assume for a moment you are not liars and you are just incompetent. If you are incompetent, then you should shuffle off "- a Bank of Ireland shareholder, Pat King, makes his voice heard at its agm.

7- The number of "lean years" faced by part of the world economy as a result of failure to tackle the imbalances of "the seven years of plenty" before 2007, according to Bank of England governor Mervyn King.