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Business this week | The Economist
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block-ec_components"> <div class="content clearfix"> <div class="share_inline_header"><ul class="clearfix"><li class="share-inline-header-facebook first" data-ec-omniture-frame="top_fb"><fb:like href="http://www.economist.com/node/21554587" send="false" layout="button_count" show_faces="false" font=""></fb:like></li> <li class="share-inline-header-twitter even last" data-ec-omniture-frame="top_twitter"><a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037/http://twitter.com/share" class="twitter-share-button" data-count="horizontal" data-related="theeconomist" data-url="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037/http://econ.st/IJbkoY" data-counturl="http://www.economist.com/node/21554587">Tweet</a></li> </ul></div> </div> </div> <div class="ec-article-content clear"> <p>The Spanish government in effect nationalised the parent company of <em class="Bold">Bankia</em>, a troubled lender formed from the merger of seven savings banks. Rodrigo Rato stepped down as chairman of the bank<em class="Italic">, </em>which is struggling with souring property loans. The Spanish government is expected to inject more funds directly into Bankia and to insist that other banks set aside around €35 billion ($45 billion) in fresh provisions. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/node/21554545">See article</a></p> <p><strong>Euro crisis, part XIX</strong></p> <p> <div class="content-image-float"> <img src="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037im_/http://media.economist.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/original-size/images/print-edition/20120512_WWC198.png" alt="" title="" class="imagecache imagecache-original-size" width="229" height="225"/> </div></p> <div class="related-items"> <strong>In this section</strong><ul class="related-item-list special-report"><li class="0 first"><a href="/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/node/21554586">Politics this week</a></li> <li class="1"><span class="current-article "><span class="related-current-indicator">»</span>Business this week</span></li> <li class="2 last"><a href="/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/node/21554592">KAL's cartoon</a></li> </ul><div class="bottom-links"><a href="/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/rights">Reprints</a></div><hr class="related-item-separator"/><strong>Related topics</strong><div class="item-list"><ul class="related-item-list"><li class="first"><a href="/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/topics/business" class="related-inline-topics">Business</a></li> <li class="even"><a href="/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/topics/eu-economy" class="related-inline-topics">EU economy</a></li> <li><a href="/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/topics/european-economy" class="related-inline-topics">European economy</a></li> <li class="even"><a href="/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/topics/russian-economy" class="related-inline-topics">Russian economy</a></li> <li class="last"><a href="/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/topics/economies" class="related-inline-topics">Economies</a></li> </ul></div> </div> <p>The inconclusive outcome of elections in Greece on May 6th led to sell-offs in <em class="Bold">stockmarkets</em> across the globe, amid doubts about Greece’s ability to meet the terms of its international bail-out and to stay in the euro zone. The main Athens index fell by 10% over two days, to a 20-year low. The Euro Stoxx index of 50 leading euro-area equities has fallen by 15% since mid-March. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/node/21554530">See article</a></p> <p><em class="Bold">HSBC</em>, the world’s fourth-largest bank by market capitalisation, beat expectations, with first-quarter pre-tax profits of $4.3 billion. The bank is undergoing significant restructuring. It has shed 14,000 full-time-equivalent jobs (5% of headcount) over the past 12 months and has disposed or closed 11 separate businesses since the start of the year.</p> <p>Andrew Moss resigned as chief executive of <em class="Bold">Aviva</em>, a British insurer, after shareholders voted against the firm’s pay policies. The company’s share price has fallen by 60% during Mr Moss’s five-year tenure. He leaves with a payout worth £1.5m ($2.4m). <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2012/05/ratio-ceo-worker-compensation">See article</a></p> <p><em class="Bold">Commerzbank</em> lost a court battle in London against 104 bankers seeking unpaid bonuses totalling €50m ($65m). The bonuses had been promised to Dresdner Kleinwort bankers before it was sold to Commerzbank in late 2008. Commerzbank itself reported first-quarter operating profit of €584m, a fall of 49% on a year earlier. It also announced that it had met the European Banking Authority’s capital requirement, largely by shrinking its balance-sheet. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/node/21554543">See article</a></p> <p>Mark Zuckerberg, the 27-year-old boss of<em class="Bold"> Facebook</em>, was the star of the show as the social network took to the road before its stockmarket listing on May 18th. The company intends to raise as much as $12 billion by selling shares at $28-35 each, which would give the company a market capitalisation of between $77 billion and $96 billion. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/node/21554532">See article</a></p> <p><strong>Not very evil</strong></p> <p>A court in San Francisco found <em class="Bold">Google</em> guilty of infringing intellectual-property rights for copying nine lines of code from <em class="Bold">Oracle</em><em class="Bold">’s</em> Java software in its Android operating system. Jurors could not agree whether the infringement was fair use or not. As a result, Oracle cannot seek damages above $150,000 from Google, some way short of the $1 billion it had hoped to receive. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2012/05/oracle-v-google">See article</a></p> <p><em class="Bold">Yahoo!</em> announced that it had appointed a special committee to conduct a thorough review of its boss’s academic credentials. Scott Thompson, who has been in charge of the ailing internet company since the beginning of the year, apparently claimed in company statements that he had a computer-science degree as well as an accounting one. The error was pointed out by a hedge fund, Third Point, which owns a 6% stake in the firm. In a memo to employees Mr Thompson said he “deeply regrets” the error.</p> <p>The <em class="Bold">unemployment</em> rate in America fell slightly in April to 8.1%, its lowest rate since Barack Obama took office. The fall was largely attributable to people leaving the labour market; the number of people employed actually fell by 169,000. At 63.6%, the labour-force participation rate is at its lowest level since 1981. <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2012/05/americas-labour-market">See article</a></p> <p>Fears of a <em class="Bold">German</em> recession were lessened as trade data from the world’s third-biggest exporter revealed that the value of exports increased by 0.9% in March compared with the previous month, to €91.8 billion ($121 billion); imports increased by 1.2%. German industrial production also increased by a surprising 2.8% in March. France’s trade gap narrowed in March to €5.7 billion from €6.3 billion in February.</p> <p><strong>Arctic explorers</strong></p> <p><em class="Bold">Statoil</em> of Norway signed a co-operation agreement with Russia’s <em class="Bold">Rosneft</em> to explore several oilfields jointly. The joint venture will explore four offshore fields in the Arctic, plus a technical study of two onshore fields in Russia. Signed under the watchful eye of Vladimir Putin, it is the third such agreement that Rosneft has signed in the past month, after similar deals with Exxon Mobil and Italy’s Eni.</p> <p>A Russian plane crashed into a hillside on a demonstration flight in Indonesia. The Superjet-100 built by <em class="Bold">Sukhoi</em> disappeared from radar screens shortly after take-off from Jakarta with 46 people on board. It is not clear whether the accident was a technical or human error, but it could scupper Sukhoi’s efforts to sell its first commercial aircraft.</p> </div> <p class="ec-article-info"> from the print edition | The world this week </p> </div> <!-- /#ec-article-body --> <div id="article-region-bottom"> <div id="block-ec_components-share_inline_footer" class="block block-ec_components"> <div class="content clearfix"> <div class="share_inline_footer"><ul class="clearfix"><li class="pt-recommend first"><a href="/web/20120516191037/http://www.economist.com/node/21554587/recommend" rel="nofollow" class="recommend" title="Recommend this content" data-ec-omniture="recommend_article">Recommend</a><div class="rec-count"><span>30</span></div></li> <li class="share-inline-footer-facebook even" data-ec-omniture-frame="footer_fb"><fb:like href="http://www.economist.com/node/21554587" send="false" layout="button_count" show_faces="false" font=""></fb:like></li> <li class="share-inline-footer-twitter" 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