Why the dizzying cost to gawp out at London from the top of the Shard? From February visitors can pay nearly $40 to watch the world go by from the top of Renzo Piano&rsquo;s striking tower. If the weather obliges, the view from 310 metres up will astound. But the cost is steep, compared to viewing other great cityscapes. Blame the footloose global rich.

Bank-breaking views

Business Standard

Investors remain justifiably twitchy about Nokia. Full-year results from the Finnish mobile-maker offset some of the optimism following strong preliminary numbers two weeks ago. The new report holds no big surprises - but underscores just how tough it will be to pull off one of the biggest turnarounds in tech history.

Smart phones vs. smart money

A deal setback for Anheuser-Busch InBev may ironically hasten a last round of consolidation in beer. The US Department of Justice opposes AB InBev&rsquo;s $20 billion plan to buy out the other half of Grupo Modelo, the Mexican group behind Corona. The world&rsquo;s largest brewer may yet find a workable compromise. But if not, an obvious plan B exists: the long-rumoured takeout of SABMiller.

SABMiller time?

Sara Lee&rsquo;s coffee spin-off must create its own buzz. Investors need to believe the unit, officially known as &lsquo;DE Master Blenders 1753&rsquo;, will benefit from a sharper focus and strong leadership.

De-consolidated foods

Fantasy M&amp;A over Verizon Wireless may stay that way. The US mobile phone giant&rsquo;s ownership structure, split 55-45 between Verizon Communications and Britain&rsquo;s Vodafone, means it is a perennial target of merger speculation. But in fact the status quo looks pretty secure.

On the horizon

Aston Martin&rsquo;s Casino Royale is a long way off. Life is hard for niche automakers, even when James Bond is a fan. Demand for supercars has wilted. And when funds are tight, vehicle ranges can grow as stale as the 007 franchise under Pierce Brosnan. A $400 million injection from a new investor would boost Aston Martin. Just don&rsquo;t expect decent returns any time soon.

Shaken, stirred and struggling

Diageo is paying a heady price for Indian spirits. The British group, already the world&rsquo;s biggest maker of top-shelf drinks, is finally taking control of United Spirits, by far India&rsquo;s largest drinks outfit. Like a shot of unrefined hooch, the $2-billion deal&rsquo;s financials are harsh to the taste at first. With age, however, the deal may become more appealing.

Diageo-engineering

ArcelorMittal is buying time by melting down its dividend. The cutback is a small but logical step as the world&rsquo;s biggest steelmaker tries to shore up its balance sheet without asking shareholders for new money. The aversion to a rights issue is understandable. For a start, raising new equity is not best done at an industry nadir. And, in this case, it could strain the Mittal family &mdash; the tycoons who run the company and own 41 per cent of its stock.

Nickel and diming

Pearson&rsquo;s future adventures in book publishing will be more saga than short story. Combining Penguin books with Bertelsmann&rsquo;s Random House unites two of the world&rsquo;s biggest publishers in a $3 billion-plus joint venture, just as the industry grapples with a shift to digital. The education-dominated Pearson reckons it can create more value by staying in general publishing than by pulling out entirely. The tale seems plausible - even if Harper Collins owner Rupert Murdoch was reportedly circling with a 1-billion-pound ($1.6 billion) cash counterbid.

A long story

ArcelorMittal is relying on iron ore to help dodge the junkyard. A rights issue would keep the credit-rating agencies at bay, but that would be painful. So the financially creaky metals giant needs to sell assets, for example a minority stake in its Canadian iron-ore operations.

Iron, steel and junk

Spinning off News Corp&rsquo;s scandal-hit publishing arm won&rsquo;t solve all of Rupert Murdoch&rsquo;s problems. The media mogul is preparing to drop his long-held resistance to a break-up, according to a report in his own Wall Street Journal. Outside investors will approve on strategic and financial grounds. But, with the Murdoch family retaining a firm grip on both parts, governance remains troublesome.

Publishing, be damned

How many times can Nokia shock the market? A new warning on margins follows a similar upset in April, and another jolt in May 2011. The mobile-phone maker was caught napping by the smartphone revolution. It has now lost about three-quarters of its market value, or roughly euro 20 billion in absolute terms, since turnaround Chief Executive Stephen Elop took the helm in September 2010. At least, he is taking action. But success still looks far from guaranteed.

Difficult calls

Aston Martin is getting a welcome boost from a &pound;150-million ($241-million) capital injection. The cash from Investindustrial, the buyout shop that turned round Ducati, should lift research and growth at James Bond&rsquo;s favourite car maker. But perhaps appropriately, Aston Martin&rsquo;s bondholders seem the biggest immediate winners.

M&A with M and Q

General Electric&rsquo;s swoop on a key supplier should stack up. The US conglomerate is paying a reasonable-looking $4.3 billion for Avio, the Italian aerospace components maker. GE gets savings and more exposure to a civil-aviation market growing at full throttle. The seller, British buyout shop Cinven, gets a satisfactory exit after a bumpy ride.

Turbine haul

Three deals from 2012 will reshape the book, music and film industries in 2013: Penguin&rsquo;s merger with Random House, Universal&rsquo;s $1.9 billion purchase of EMI&rsquo;s recorded-music business, and Walt Disney&rsquo;s $4.1 billion takeover of Lucasfilm. There are sound business reasons for all three. There are also reasons for artists and consumers to fret.

The empires strike back

ArcelorMittal, the world&rsquo;s biggest steelmaker, is tackling debts by selling $3.5 billion of new shares and convertible bonds. This is easier than a rights issue and the company sensibly waited for warmer market sentiment before jumping in. But the latest capital call will once again eat into the stake of the controlling Mittal family.

Roll up, roll up

What does Nokia boss Stephen Elop need to do this year? The ailing mobile giant he leads ended 2012 surprisingly strongly. But the market remains understandably wary. To convince sceptics, Elop&rsquo;s biggest task is ensuring top-end smartphone sales really take off. The strategy for cheaper phones may need a rethink. Floating Nokia Siemens Networks, the revamped network-equipment unit, would help too.

Not finished yet

The old dogs of war have secured one of the biggest M&amp;A mandates of the year. Bankers often say they are in the relationship business. With the proposed $45 billion tie-up between EADS and BAE Systems, this sales patter is actually true.

War games

Europe&rsquo;s answer to Boeing comes in an unappealing package for merger arbitrageurs. The $45-billion union of BAE and EADS should be a godsend for deal-starved hedge funds. But there&rsquo;s no agreement yet and non-financial obstacles abound. Moreover, a &ldquo;dual-listed company&rdquo; structure adds risk.

Run: DLC!

Buyout firms risk alienating other stakeholders by getting too close to a handful of major backers. CVC and Providence are the latest private equity houses to sell slivers of themselves to big pension and sovereign wealth funds. That brings capital to expand, or to plough back into the funds the PE shop manages. But it could also deter other investors from backing those funds because of conflicts of interest, real or perceived.

At stake

Crashing out of Europe can mean very different things to different people. Manchester United&rsquo;s early exit last year from the Champions League, the continent&rsquo;s top soccer tournament, spelled a big hit to revenue and pride. George Soros, in contrast, made his name, and perhaps a billion pounds, when his Quantum fund bet that Britain would have to leave the European Exchange-Rate Mechanism in 1992. The octogenarian financier has now turned his attention to the soccer club.

Quentin Webb