Planet Business

Compiled by LAURA SLATTERY

Image of the week: The last of the Ladas

Lada jokes died some time in the early 1990s, and now the Lada itself is on its way out. Russian state car maker Avtovaz has announced it is to halt production of the last models in its Lada Classic series this year, after four decades. The car with a reputation for being on the slow side is uncannily photographed in focus on the streets of Moscow this week while every other vehicle whizzes by in a blur. Yesterday, meanwhile, Renault Nissan announced it was taking control of Avtovaz for $750 million (€570 million) in a deal that will make Renault-Nissan-Avtovaz the third biggest automobile group in the world. Photograph: Reuters

Getting to know... Bruce Dickinson

You may already know Bruce Dickinson as the frontman of heavy metal band Iron Maiden, but he’s now a fully fledged, fully suited aviation entrepreneur.

Dickinson, a pilot since the 1990s, is to take over part of an RAF air base in Wales and turn it into an aircraft maintenance centre, employing 800 people, according to the Financial Times.

Dickinson wants his company to service Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s, but if it doesn’t work out, that’s an ideal set for a heavy metal music video he’s got right there.

As reinventions go it’s almost as good as the fact that Swedish tennis champion Stefan Edberg is now a professional bond investor.

The lexicon: Touchdown office

The city of the future will be shaped by the ability of its population to work anywhere, not just in the office, according to a report by Microsoft and UnWork.com, which has taken this philosophy and turned it into the concept of the "Anywhere Working City", which will be filled with "touchdown offices" located in satellite towns closer to where employees live. In the long term, it's all about encouraging employers to move away from the single company headquarters model and use networked "work hubs" instead.

In numbers: Auctioning ‘The Scream’

$119,922,500

Price for which Edvard Munch’s The Scream was sold for at a New York auction on Wednesday. It has become the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction.

12

Number of minutes that saw the price tag of the 1895 painting increase from initial bidding of $40 million. The successful phone bidder’s name was not released.

9

Number of artworks that have sold for $80 million or more at auction, according to auction house Sotheby’s. The painting sold this week was one of four versions of the image and the only one left in private hands.