Planet Business

In numbers: wine wars

2

Number of bids received by the world’s biggest listed winemaker, Australia’s Treasury Wine Estates. The first bid is from US private equity giant KKR, while the second bid, at almost €2.4 billion, is from an unnamed private equity group.

385m

Number of bottles of wine sold last year by Treasury Wine Estates, which owns brands such as Penfolds, Wolf Blass, Rosemount and Lindeman’s. Approximately 97 per cent of these were consumed by parents of small children.

€24m

Last June, the group destroyed this amount (A$34 million) worth of unsellable wine after sales in the US failed to live up to its expectations. This gave the company a massive financial hangover.

Image of the week: Office snack piggy bank Meanwhile, in Japan, here's what's known as the Office Glico. The hand in this picture is an office worker putting a 100 yen coin (about 70 cent) into a frog-themed piggy bank with three drawers filled with "munchies".

The “drop a coin, grab a snack” wheeze is the invention of confectionery maker Ezaki Glico and it is aimed at corporate employees who are both “too busy to pop out of the office” and unable to access something like, well, a fridge.

So it’s cute, especially as it assumes on trust that workers will pay. On the other hand, it just doesn’t seem like the kind of thing people who work for Google have to worry about. Photograph: Yuya Shino/Reuters

The lexicon: Last blockbuster syndrome Nokia, Motorola and now possibly Nintendo are victims of "last blockbuster syndrome", according to tech news site Boy Genius Report (BGR), which means that they were or are on the cusp of being lulled into complacency by their own massive success.

For years, Nintendo believed it could flourish despite rejecting smartphone and tablet apps, and the reason for this “delusion” is last blockbuster syndrome, says tech consultant Tero Kuittinen.

The portable games console industry, once a profits superhero, is now dying like a mediocre sequel at the box office.

Getting to know: Joseph Safra The billionaire Brazilian banker is currently the fly in the fruitbowl of banana distributor Fyffes. The Irish company was merrily trying to close a merger with US-based Chiquita when Safra, together with Brazilian juice maker Cutrale, unexpectedly made a counter-offer.

The Safra family established its banking empire in Europe and the Middle East in the 19th century, but after the second World War they relocated to Brazil, where septuagenarian Safra now has a net worth of almost $16 billion (€11.95 billion). This makes him the world’s 60th richest man – clearly, he’s got his eye on the top 50 and thinks bananas might be the answer.

The list: Absent retailers Hennes & Mauritz's delightful clothing brand & Other Stories is the favourite to move into the former A-Wear building on Dublin's Grafton Street. But which other international chains have yet to arrive in the Republic? 1 Hotel Chocolat: The decade-old chocolate retailer has made its way to Belfast, and is welcome south of the Border anytime it likes. 2 J Crew: The Michelle Obama-endorsed US clothing brand offers "a zingy take on preppy classics", according to the fashion press. 3 Waitrose: A posh supermarket chain will be an oxymoron for some purists, but they would shop there just the same. 4 Banana Republic: The Gap-owned brand is often rumoured to be opening here but it's online shopping only for the moment. 5 John Lewis: The department store group and renowned Christmas sentimentalists never made it here before the bust. Will there ever be a good time?