The soaring food prices are an urgent problem the actual governments have to face worldwide: Food riots are provoking more and more political instability, like in Haiti or Indonesia. The price level of food is able to lead to developing countries missing international poverty targets.

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Novartis has agreed to acquire a controlling stake in ophthalmology specialist Alcon for around $39 billion, revealing a clear intention to drive diversification from its core prescription pharmaceutical business. Although Alcon will not come cheap, the acquisition represents a positive, long term strategy by Novartis which faces intensifying generic competition over the next five years.
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Eco-friendly computing practices, collectively termed Green IT, have gained significant CIO mindshare lately, thanks to the almost ubiquitous debate around enterprise carbon footprints and all things environmental-friendly

Adoption of eco-friendly computing is fast emerging as a priority for technology decision makers. A new report by independent market analyst Datamonitor, “2008 Trends to Watch: Green IT”, predicts a surge in CIO interest and vendor initiatives in the Green IT space. It reveals that tighter regulatory measures and advances in technology are feeding renewed interest in Green IT. In an independent survey* conducted by Datamonitor, over 75% of respondent firms considered eco-friendly computing as an important element in their IT strategy while a further 15% rated it as their top IT priority.

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In a report about the future of social networks published in October 2007, Datamonitor predicted global revenues from social networking are set to reach USD$2.4 billion by 2012. It also went on to say that as the market became more crowded, it would be harder for social networking sites to remain independent and that acquisition would solve scalability issues, improve content and search capabilities, and extend visibility and reach. This acquisition gives Bebo increased resources, Time Warner a new channel for its content, and AOL a new challenge in a period of intense transition. If the acquisition goes well, Bebo and Time Warner together could develop a partnership to rival that of MySpace and News Corp. However, the challenges of switching from a subscription to a fully advertising-supported revenue model while breaking new ground in social network monetization, could overwhelm AOL.

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