Planet Business

Compiled by Laura Slattery.

The Numbers . . .

20,000 -number of items in the Heathrow Terminal 5 baggage mountain, after the 24km (15 miles) of basement conveyor belts proved a little difficult for the bags to negotiate all by themselves. About 10 per cent of the "delayed" bags will be sent (by road) to Milan for sorting.

£20m-£50 -cost of the "PR disaster" of Terminal 5's botched opening to British Airways, according to analysts at stockbroker Collins Stewart, with only Willie Walsh's effusive and repeated "the buck stops here" apologies cutting any ice with public relations watchers.

18.8 million -number of tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted by Ireland in 2007, fewer than the 20.8 million tonnes permitted by the EU, according to provisional figures that show Europe's pollution levels were well within the carbon permits allocated.

4 per cent -the rise in the price of 2008 carbon permits on Wednesday, after investors reckoned that a tougher emissions regime this year would result in permit shortages. Carbon prices have slumped in the past when the EU was over-generous with permits.

Quote of the Week . . .

"This company is cursed: only an exorcist can save it."

- No, these are not the words of Peter Cameron, departed chief executive of troubled Waterford Wedgwood, but a line attributed by Alitalia's unions to its former chairman, Maurizio Prato, who quit after the collapse of protracted takeover negotiations with Air France and KLM.

Good Week . . .

Imagine VillasSpain's overheated residential property market is cooling fast, with sales down 35 per cent year-on- year and residential estate developments in some tourist hotspots now taking an average of four years to sell. But if Imagine Villas has been burnt, it's hiding its scars well, with the real estate company this week unveiling the Hacienda del Alamo, a luxury golf development in Murcia, at a Spanish-themed fiesta in Dublin.

Pernod RicardThe world's second-largest wine and spirits company has become, in its own words, the "co-leader" in wine and spirits, drawing almost level with Diageo on sales after it won the race to buy Vin & Sprit from the Swedish government. Pernod Ricard spent more than €5.6 billion on the deal, which adds Absolut, the world's second-most popular vodka behind Diageo's Smirnoff, to its overflowing drinks brand cabinet.

Bad Week . . .

GoogleMere weeks after social networker Facebook poached Google's sales and operations executive, Sheryl Sandberg, to become its chief operating officer, EMI boss Guy Hands has dipped into the Google talent pool, convincing senior executive Douglas Merrill, who led Google's successful stock market listing in 2004, to become one of the "suits" that Hands believes should now run the music label.

NikeMore than 20,000 workers at a Vietnamese factory that makes 75 million pairs of shoes for the sportswear firm every year have gone on strike, asking for higher pay to cope with the rising cost of living in Vietnam and - in a move that will touch an even more recognisable chord with the global workforce - better canteen lunches. Nike says it hopes the situation can be resolved "quickly and amicably". Just do it, corporate skinflints.