Tech Titan Trauma

This week saw technology titans release their quarterly reports with a few shockers, both good and bad, announced.

The Good

Apple was the shinning light of the weeks earnings reports with a 46% increase in iPhone sales with sales so popular they tied with Samsung selling an estimated 74.5 million phones. Apple's reports were so astronomical they even reached some historic figures. For it's closet mobile competitor it was a mixed bag with Samsung managing to beat gloomy forecasts but with income still falling 36% due to sluggish phone sales.

Amazon wasn't to be outdone posting strong Holiday sales showing a surge of 15% year-on-year and it even managed to post a profit after recent very big, and very public, failures. Facebook saw it's share price rise after better than expected fourth-quarter earnings thanks to advertising while Yahoo saw it's shares rise after it decided to spin off it's shares in Alibaba in a tax free transaction.

The Bad

It wasn't all good news with Microsoft dropping 4% after it released some dreadful numbers thanks to a drop in people upgrading to Windows 10 from Windows XP but also due to upgrades from Windows 7 & 8 to 10 being free. Google didn't fare any better when fourth-quarter sales and profit missed Wall Street estimates due to advertising on mobile taking a knock. The darling of Wall Street, Alibaba, saw it's shares tumble 9% after weaker than expected sales growth was revealed.

The Ugly

Lastly nobody took a bigger knock than IBM who began axing over 100,000 jobs, laying off over 26% of it's global workforce, saying it would begin reorganizing the company with what it termed "Project Chrome".

Business Battered and Bruised

It's been a relaxed week on the markets with a few big movers announcing results but with most attention on states and their business interests.

State of Business

With the recent downing of Flight MH17 the total liability of the crash could reportedly reach $1 billion, add to that the second major blow to it's brand, can Malaysian Airs survive? In related Ukrainian news Russia are having trouble selling bonds after their Ukraine adventure prompted the cancellation of the bond auction.

More nations are having a hard time with Argentina asking a US judge to put the debt payment order on hold while Puerto Rico's debt crisis could be heading for a US style bankruptcy resolution. South Korea announced a new stimulus plan to help the economy after the Ferry disaster earlier in the year slowed economic growth. In the Eurozone public debt spiked reversing the down trend when the economic crisis eased. The IMF has cut the global growth outlook taking into account weakness in both the US and China.

Saudi Arabia seems to be the only glimmer of hope as it announced it had opened it's $531 billion stock market to foreign investors for the first time.

Business Battered

A widow of a chain smoker has been awarded $23billion in damages against the second largest cigarette maker in the US, RJ Reynolds.

McDonald's didn't have a great week when it was revealed there was an issue with a supplier of meat to McDonalds in China resulting in certain items being pulled from menu's. McDonald's hasn't had much luck in Europe either with it's German profits taking a knock and the Russian consumer protection agency seeking to ban some of it's burgers and milk shakes.

Barclays employee's have said they were concerned about the "Dark Pools" before the suit was filed by the SEC. Barclays has since filed to have the suit dismissed but the SEC have instead stepped up the inverstigation.

The takeover of Time Warner by Rupert Murdocks News Corp has been bumpy with Time Warner preventing shareholders from calling meetings and as interest grows shares of Time Warner could reach $105 a share.

Technology Titans

Facebook showed critics when it's reported  profit's more than doubled thanks to mobile ads resulting in the stock going on to hit a record high and pocketing founder, Mark Zuckerberg, a cool $1.6 billion.

Apple seems pretty certain of it's future reportedly asking it's supplier to produce 80 million large screen iPhones however things weren't all great as it was revealed 18,000 Apple employee's have opened a class action lawsuit against Apple.

More tech Titans made themselves known on the stock market with Alibaba indicating it would wait till after US Labor Day to launch it's much anticipated IPO. However things weren't great for many others with Microsoft's fourth quarter earnings taking a hit after it's acquisition of Nokia and finally Amazon didn't fare to well either when it posted a $126 million loss.

Business, Bitcoin and Bureaucracy

It's been an interesting week for business with one or two highlight's in a sea of gloom, from the US to Iraq, Argentina and China, it's been a global affair.

The week started on a positive note when Starbucks announced it would pay tuition for thousands of it's employee's to take courses through Arizona State University to complete their Bachelor's degree. It seemed like business as usual with Amazon announcing the it's latest product, the Fire Phone, to take on the smartphone market.

But it didn't last long heading downwards from there with the GM CEO set to face more Capital Hill questions after the recent spate of recalls and got worse when hackers stole customer data from Domino's pizza in Europe and demanded a ransom.

Things seemed to only get worse when the US Marshal's leaked the list of potential bidders for Bitcoins confiscated from Silk Road. Bitcoin continued the negative ride when the Bitcoin doomsday scenario arrived as it was revealed that 51% of Bitcoin's processing power was controlled by a single group. There was some light for Mt. Gox who got approval for US bankruptcy protection.

While the Obama Administration made strides determined to extend family leave for same-sex couples the Federal Reserve announced it would curtail it's bond buying activity but continue with mortgage bonds and potentially Treasury securities too. But it wouldn't last long with a Veterans Affairs official being arrested for accepting $40k in illegal gifts.

Internationally it got downright ugly with the Argentine government trying to side step a US Supreme Court order by offering a debt swap to it's creditors. China then rejected a shipping alliance despite support from the US and EU which would have saved the industry money. And if all that wasn't bad enough the escalating violence in Iraq shook the markets with oil prices surging.

What Happened? 2013 Business News

The business world had some nervous moments with politicians getting in the way and wars at breaking point but the always innovative tech world made sure money was made.

Tech world keeps ticking

Bitcoin, the infamous decentralized virtual currency, had a bumpy year with wild swings in it's value. Unfortunately it also suffered a dramatic set back when the Chinese government banned it's use.

Twitter finally made it's debut on the stock market with it's IPO. It wasn't all smooth sailing with the stock taking a tumble after a warning it was overvalued.

Amazon had huge sales come Christmas and gained even more attention with it's crazy drone delivery plan.

Apple released the next generation of iPhones instantly invalidating all previous models having their legions of fans waiting in line to upgrade.

Government, can't live with them...

The business world held it's breath as the US edged closer to defaulting on it's obligations. Eventually the US government closed for business when Republicans refused a budget bill in an attempt to delay Obamacare resulting in nation wide shutdown.

After pumping billions into the economy during the recent recession the Fed's tapering had markets a buzz.

The earlier NSA revelations trickled down to business with telecoms giants admitting to their part in providing the government with access to phone records of millions. Even big tech companies had co-operated from Google to Yahoo and Microsoft.

Bad (for) business?

BP has been trying to cut it's losses from it's oil clean up fines requesting proof of losses which was later turned down by the courts.

Sometimes all it takes is one employee to cause headaches, case in point IAC Communications Director Justine Sacco sending a racist tweet before hoping on a plane to Africa. She was later fired.

The big banks paid for their blunders with JP Morgan paying $13billion in fines for it's toxic mortgages part.

A garment factory collapse killing 175 people in Bangladesh and a fire in a 10 story building raised questions about the west's growing desire for cheap goods.