The Irish Times - Finance

• Waterford Wedgwood placed in receivership
  LUXURY GOODS firm Waterford Wedgwood was put into receivership yesterday and trading in its shares on the Irish Stock Exchange was suspended after the company failed to find a buyer amid the global financial crisis.
  
  
• Waterford workers pin hopes on finding buyer
  SOLEMN ONE-or-two word answers tumbled from the lips of of workers who yesterday morning learned that Waterford Wedgwood had gone into receivership.
  
  
• O'Reilly facing heavy losses
  LOSSES INCURRED by Waterford Wedgwood’s main shareholders, Sir Anthony O’Reilly and his brother-in-law Peter Goulandris, through their investments in the luxury goods company could rise significantly under deals agreed with the firm’s banks.
  
  
• Waterford Wedgwood: rise and fall
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• MasterCard pays $100m to acquire Irish-based Orbiscom
  ORBISCOM, THE Irish electronic payments software company, has been acquired by credit card issuer MasterCard for approximately $100 million (€73.4 million).
  
  
• Making a dead letter of Budget 2009
  The extent of the decline in revenue buoyancy, as shown in yesterday's Exchequer figures, is still remarkable, writes
  
  
• Report due soon on loans to Anglo directors
  The inquiry team set up to investigate the Financial Regulator's handling of the directors' loans controversy at Anglo Irish Bank is due to report its findings to the regulator's board by Friday, writes  , Finance Correspondent
  
  
• Ryanair complains on payment deal at Aer Lingus
  RYANAIR HAS asked the Irish Takeover Panel to investigate Aer Lingus’s agreement to pay its chief executive Dermot Mannion €2.8 million should he resign following a takeover of the airline.
  
  
• Apple curbs talk of CEO's ill-health by revealing recent hormonal imbalance
  APPLE HAS moved to quell speculation about the health of its chief executive Steve Jobs by announcing he has a hormone imbalance which caused him to lose weight throughout 2008.
  
  
• €50bn German stimulus to tackle economic crisis
  GERMANY IS close to announcing a second fiscal stimulus worth up to €50 billion, almost double the amount expected just a week ago, senior officials said yesterday in a sign of the country’s increasing concerns about the severity of the downturn.
  
  
• Hibernia Atlantic wins €32m contract
  THE COMMUNICATIONS minister Eamon Ryan and the North’s Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster have announced the awarding of a £30 million (€32 million) contract to construct a new direct telecommunications link to North America that will benefit Northern Ireland and the Republic.
  
  
• Extended Christmas breaks for some Northern firms as recession bites
  IT MAY be early days, but it has already been a bad start to the new year for many Northern Ireland companies, particularly manufacturing and construction firms. Factories and plants which should be noisy and busy lie empty and silent this week.
  
  
• In Short
  A roundup of today's other business news in brief