Amazon to buy Audible for $300 million | Reuters. 25% of audible’s business comes from apple itunes.

Goldman Sachs set to cut 1,500 jobs. say what? they made $11 billion last year.

British Brewer Is Sold for $15.4 Billion - New York Times. ok, there’s been so much consolidation in the beer market in the last few years that you can’t even keep the company names straight. My bet, in a couple of years they’ll all collapse into one company which will be called OmniBeer.

French Bank Says Rogue Trader Lost $7 Billion - New York Times. “This month Risk Magazine, a British publication, named SocGen “equity derivatives house of the year,” praising its ability to manage its risks.” This guy puts Nick Leeson to shame

Michael Lewis on Goldman Sachs cashing in on the subprime mess. “I can’t think of another example of a big Wall Street firm saying so clearly through its trading positions as Goldman Sachs did over the past year that it thinks the rest of its industry, including its own people, is a bunch of idiots.”

Yahoo To Cut 20% Of Its Workforce? that’s 2400 people.

Sun buys MySQL for $1 billion - Times Online. i really have no idea what sun’s business model is anymore.

Citigroup Posts $9.8 Billion Loss; Will Cut 4000 Jobs - New York Times. and “cutting its dividend by 41 percent and obtaining a $12.5 billion cash infusion” from investors like the Singapore government.

TheStar.com | Telus considers dumping its `Betamax’ of wireless networks. rumors of a switch from CDMA to GSM. mentions how it wants to get in on the “lucrative business” (read: racket) that is international roaming charges. via jody

Springwise: Auto insurance by the mile. i would love this as i rarely use my car.

NYTimes Op-ed asking if Amazon’s customer service is the reason for it’s stock rise. “According to Forrester Research, 52 percent of people who shop online say they do their product research on Amazon.”, that is nuts.

Macworld | Can Macs conquer the enterprise?. some crazy stats in there about percentage of tech-savvy and student groups with macs.

Sony Joins Other Labels on Amazon MP3 Store - New York Times. i guess that means DRM for music is officially dead.

BBC NEWS | Golden Globes ceremony scrapped. a blow from the writers guild.

Amazon Adds Warner Music to DRM-Free Roster. one more major label to go.

Why Starbucks actually helps mom and pop coffehouses. via ram.

Fliers Fed Up? Airline Employees Feel the Same - New York Times. lesson learned from this article: never fly US Airways, never work at US Airways, and short their stock.

Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world - Fortune “His family’s holdings represent more than 5% of Mexico’s 2006 gross domestic product, and Slim-controlled companies make up one-third of the $422 billion Mexican Bolsa, or stock exchange.” holy shit.

Let My People Go Surfing. an excerpt from a new management book by Yvon Chouinard, founder of Patagonia and a personal hero of mine.

Stewart and Colbert to Return Without Writers - New York Times. so a bunch of interviews? that’ll suck.