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The briefcase
Here's everything you need to know about business this week
Everyone was talking about SiteServ, mobilegeddon and food-delivery wars.
EVERY WEEKEND, TheJournal.ie gives its readers the chance to put their feet up and take a look back at all the goings-on from the world of business.
Once again it’s time to delve deep inside The Briefcase for the important – and sometimes less-important – financial news that has come out this working week:
SiteServ was the name on everyone’s lips. Independent TD Catherine Murphy this week received a ream of heavily-redacted documents into a deal between the IBRC – formerly Anglo Irish Bank – and the Denis O’Brien-owned Millington in 2012. The tycoon’s company bought the heavily-indebted SiteServ for €45 million in an arrangement that cost the state €105 million. The files also revealed a deeper rift between government officials and IBRC liquidators over a series of other transactions
Mobilegeddon hit… but the world kept turning. The name was given to the Tuesday deadline for Google re-working its mobile search systems. Designed to give users a better mobile browsing experience, it meant pages – like those of many small businesses – would be demoted in results if they weren’t “mobile friendly”. But, as we learned this week, it wasn’t just SMEs whose sites weren’t up to speed
The food-delivery wars were joined. UK upstart Deliveroo officially launched in Ireland this week, claiming a more “upmarket” offering than rivals like Just Eat. But the more-established player hit back with a new lunchtime service – and the news that its takeaways were now known as “delivery restaurants”
Tesco posted its biggest-ever loss. The company’s latest annual results were awash in red ink after it wrote down the value of its properties and some other operations. But aside from the paper loss, the results also showed its Irish business has been in a world of pain – shedding more trade than any other territory over the year
Niall Horan is doing very nicely. The latest Sunday Times rich list revealed DJ Calvin Harris was the richest entertainer in the UK and Ireland with a personal fortune of about €96 million. However the lads from One Direction, including Horan, weren’t doing too badly either – the equal-second wealthiest musicians under 30 with €34 million to their names apiece
AIB’s banking crisis-era boss is very sorry. That’s one of the main things we learned from the banking inquiry this week as former bank chairman Dermot Gleeson took the hot seat. Meanwhile, it was also revealed the bank wanted only a limited guarantee – excluding Anglo and Nationwide – when the fateful decision was made. In an earlier session, Nama was accused of being used for a €10 billion “bailout by stealth” by paying over the odds for banks’ bad loans
A whole housing estate sold for under €3 million. The 46-house development in Dingle, Co Kerry returned €2.9 million – or about €65,000 per house – at the latest Allsop auction. Elsewhere, a commercial development of 39 retail units, apartments and townhouses in Co Meath went for just over €1 million
Bank of Ireland customers were angry… and broke. Many checked their accounts on Thursday to find payments due hadn’t hit their accounts after another apparent glitch at the bank. The frustration wasn’t helped by BoI’s flippant responses that it was “confident” payments would still be processed on the day
One for the road
It was a decade ago this week that the first-ever video was made public on a little site called YouTube.
While that post was a pretty bland affair, the site has since transformed into everything from a music-sharing service to a treasure trove of how-to-guides.
And then there’s the crap. So much glorious, time-wasting crap. Ah, the memories.
First published 25 April
MORE: Have a look at our business wraps from previous weeks >
