Business this week

From The Economist print edition:

British Airways confirmed that its current CEO, Rod Eddington, would retire later this year. BA's new boss will be Willie Walsh, the former head of Aer Lingus, an Irish airline. Mr Walsh carried out a programme of cost-cutting while repositioning Aer Lingus as a low-cost carrier.

Boeing also lost its chief executive. Harry Stonecipher resigned after an affair with a female colleague came to light. Senior executives said the affair had raised issues of “poor judgment”.

Cathay Pacific said net income in 2004, at HK$4.42 billion ($567m), had more than tripled compared with 2003, when the Hong Kong-based airline was hit by travel concerns over SARS.

Shares in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia fell by 18% as the company's eponymous founder was released from five months in jail. Shares in the lifestyle guru's company had been doing very well since last July, when Ms Stewart was sentenced.

Toys “R” Us received a buyout offer from an investment group. The deal, worth $5 billion, would keep the retailer as one unit. The company had planned to hive off its toy-retailing operation from its more profitable baby-goods stores.

Japan's Fair Trade Commission chided Intel for inducing five PC-makers to use its chips through a system of rebates. European Union regulators are also looking at the company's marketing strategy, which subsidises PC-makers in return for placing Intel's name on computers.