Planet Business

Today's other news in brief

Etihad Airways    Qantas Champagne Ground Zero    InBev

The numbers 22

- percentage of workers who check work-related e-mail and phone messages while on holiday, according to a poll by recruitment firm Monster. So their bodies soak up the ultraviolet rays and fresh sea air of a utopian beach, but their minds can't help wandering back to the airless office at home.

2,200,000

- percentage rate of inflation in the political and economic chaos of Zimbabwe, according to new official figures, which puts Ireland's flirtation with recession into some kind of perspective.

Quote of the Week

'I never felt so sorry for poor little old Microsoft.'

- US politician John Conyers jnr draws laughter at a congressional hearing at which the software giant complained that the Google and Yahoo advertising alliance could result in the kind of abusively dominant position that it is used to enjoying. Google executives retaliated by saying Microsoft was not known for being a "mom and pop shop".

Good Week

Etihad Airways

While other airlines furiously cancel overambitious aircraft orders and scrape together stray specks of fuel to save money, Etihad Airways had cash to burn at this week's Farnborough airshow in the UK. The airline, which is the only carrier flying longhaul routes east from Dublin, ordered 100 Airbus and Boeing aircraft at discount prices.

Champagne

It's fizzy, it's delicate and now it's officially recession-proof. The Liv-ex Champagne 25 Index, which tracks the price of the world's most sought-after vintages, shows that bottles of bubbly are worth a sparkling 27 per cent more than they were a year ago, thanks to the tireless support of Formula One drivers, the wedding industry and Russian oligarchs.

InBev

Stella and Bud have been united as Belgian brewing giant InBev, maker of Stella Artois, finally got its clutches on US brewer Anheuser-Busch and its flagship beer brand, Budweiser. The new company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, will sell 65 billion pints of beer every year.

BadWeek

Qantas

The Aussie airline has been dubbed a "cancer kangaroo" by anti-smoking lobby groups after it resumed inflight cigarette sales almost a decade after they were stopped. It can't legally advertise cigarettes in its shopping catalogue, so instead it has ordered cabin crew to make sure the ciggies are prominently displayed on top of its duty-free carts.

VHI

The Supreme Court's risk equalisation reversal has serious consequences for "more medically vulnerable customers", claims the State-owned health insurer. But it is VHI itself that looks the most chronically exposed, with the old-timer's vague threat of future premium hikes likely to add to the market share of younger, fitter rivals Quinn and Hibernian.

Ground Zero

New York's Port Authority has failed in its bid to persuade Merrill Lynch to move its headquarters to the World Trader Center site. Merrill decided a close-up view of the planned new Freedom Tower wouldn't prove so attractive without the tax breaks it was seeking, further derailing the budget-blowing Ground Zero rebuilding project.