Business Diary: Murdoch swallows his pride at MySpace

Ever the pragmatist, Rupert Murdoch has no intention of cutting his nose off to spite his face. Despite the spat he is having with Google over its use of News International copy he would like to charge for on the internet, Murdoch has sanctioned a business deal between his struggling MySpace social networking site and the search engine. Needs must and all that.

Celebrity endorsement with a theme

Cash4Gold is really going for it. Having signed up MC Hammer as an international ambassador last week, the company, which buys up people's unwanted gold – from jewellery to fillings if you need the cash – wanted an equally high- profile star to boost its UK reputation. Who better than drum and bass superstar Goldie, who is now on the payroll?

Festive greetings from Goldman Sachs

Goldman Sachs doesn't court publicity, but it has a sense of humour. The investment bank sent out its Christmas cards by email yesterday, so that they arrived in people's inboxes just hours before the Chancellor set out his plans to tax bonus payments. It's still the season of goodwill then.

The geeks star in the latest charity calendar

Computer Weekly's website isn't the first place one would look for pictures of half-dressed folk – male or female – but there is something strangely fascinating about its current feature on the Nude Tech Calendar 2010, which "features 24 tasteful photos of London's leading new media entrepreneurs". Assuage any sense of guilt you feel looking at the feature with the knowledge that the venture is for charity.

Familiar feeling for Kleinwort bankers

Déjà vu for Kleinwort Benson staff at its recent Entrepreneurs Forum. One speaker, Gordon Blair, told them about his role in selling the Brawn grand prix team to Mercedes after a championship-winning year. Seven weeks previously, the same bankers had sat in the same room to listen to their own boss, Rob Taylor, talk about how Kleinwort itself had been sold to RHJ.

Number of the day: 807m

The number of bottles of Scotch whisky exported in the first nine months of 2009, 1.5 per cent up on 2008.

businessdiary@independent.co.uk