Planet Business

A round-up of this week's stories in brief

The Lexicon

Electronic Curtain

The “electronic curtain” is Barack Obama’s Churchill-inspired name for censorship of communication devices in Iran – “a barrier that stops the free flow of information and ideas in the country and denies the rest of the world the benefit of interacting with Iranian people”.

The US says it wants to sweep back this invisible curtain, making efforts to reach out to Iranians via a “virtual embassy” (aka social media) and introducing guidelines that will make it easier for US software companies, including Skype, Google Talk and Yahoo Messenger, to market their wares in Iran.

All this was announced via YouTube . . . so perhaps not every Iranian saw it.

Image of the Week

Mad Men at the NYSE

They thought it couldn’t get any more glamorous than Enda Kenny and the Ireland Inc posse.

But amazingly, within mere days, the good people who distribute the honour of ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange managed to attract the photogenic cast of Mad Men ahead of their fifth season premiere this weekend. Photographed here on Wednesday by Reuters/Lucas Jackson are actors Jon Hamm and January Jones with show creator Matthew Weiner (left).

They opted to avoid an Enda-style thumbs up gesture, though Don and Betty seem uncharacteristically cheerful nonetheless.

In Numbers:

Inditex, Spain and China

5,527: total number of stores worldwide owned by Spanish retail group Inditex, after it added 483 net new stores in 2011; 22 are in Ireland.

5: new markets entered last year by the Zara-owning group, as it lessened its dependence on its unemployment-scarred home market, where it has 1,932 stores.

€13.8bn:  net sales in 2011, after it racked up a 10 per cent growth in revenues. It plans to start selling online in China, where it has 275 outlets, and counting.