Business review of the year

January 2: Stock markets start the year at six-year highs, with £40bn worth of deals awaiting completion. Read the article Photograph: Scott Olson/AFP

January 3: Bob Nardelli is ousted from Home Depot in the US with a $210m pay-off, one of the richest ever seen. Read the article Photograph: Ric Feld/AP

Marks & Spencer has promoted chief executive Sir Stuart Rose to executive chairman in breach of City corporate governance codes. (Read the article) Photograph: Graeme Robertson/Guardian

January 22: Gap chief Paul Pressler is forced out with $14m after two years of almost unbroken falling sales. Read the article Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP

Steelmaker Corus announced cuts of 2,500 UK jobs at Llanwern, Scunthorpe, Port Talbot (pictured), Rotherham and Teesside Photograph: Scott Barbour/Getty

February 8: Sir Richard Branson launches Virgin Media with a promise to take on Rupert Murdoch’s dominance of the pay television market. Read the article Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty

February 9: FirstGroup, Britain’s biggest bus company, buys a slice of Americana when it pays £1.8bn for Greyhound. Read the article Photograph: Wilfredo Lee/AP

March 13: HMV closes 30 Waterstone’s bookshops as the internet and supermarkets eat into sales. Read the article Photograph: Sean Smith/Guardian

March 22: The long awaited ‘open skies’ treaty is agreed, allowing unfettered access for airlines between the United States and Europe. Read the article Photograph: Marcus Brandt/Getty

March 30: Burberry, that most British of brands, quits the Rhonnda Valley and ships production to the Far East. Read the article Photograph: Cathal McNaughton/PA

The lowest percentage of people since 1999 are happy with Threadneedle Street's handling of inflation. Read the article Photograph: Martin Godwin/Guardian

April 24: Italian Stefano Pessina leads the first private equity buyout of a FTSE 100 company when he takes control of high street chemist Alliance Boots. Read the article Photograph: Gabriel Szabo/Newscast

April 30: HSBC sells its Canary Wharf headquarters for a record £1.1bn. Read the article Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

After more than 40 years, Lord Browne’s career at BP ended abruptly in May after he admitted lying to a court. He turned BP into a major player but also faced criticism for safety lapses. Lord Browne received £10.6m last year. Photograph: Dan Chung/Guardian

June 6: Upmarket American food retailer, Whole Foods Market arrives in Britain. Read the article Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian

June 12: The lid is lifted on the private equity industry as Blackstone prepares for a stock market flotation. It emerges that boss Stephen Schwarzman made $398m last year. Read the article Photograph: Mat Szwajkos/Getty

June 26: The US launches a criminal inquiry into allegedly corrupt deals with Saudi Arabia. A three-year British Serious Fraud Office inquiry that found £1bn had been paid to Washington accounts controlled by Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia was suppressed last December after intervention by the attorney general and Tony Blair. Read the article Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian

July 3: Microsoft founder Bill Gates lost his title as the world's richest man, toppled from top spot by the Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim. Read the article Photograph: Patricia Dominguez/EPA

July 13: Former Telegraph boss Conrad Black is convicted of fraud. He is later sentenced to six years in prison. Read the article Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA

July 16: Cadbury is fined £1m over a salmonella outbreak that gave 42 people food poisoning and put three of them in hospital. Read the article Photograph: Gabriel Szabo/Newscast

July 26: The credit crunch leads to panic selling on the markets. Read the article Photograph: Greg Wood/Getty

August 2: Private equity firm led by Guy Hands buys EMI. Read the article Photograph: Carl de Souza/Getty

British Airways raised fuel charges as the price of oil soared. (Read the article) Photograph: Newscast

Mattel admitted that there could be toy shortages this Christmas, after announcing its third product recall of Chinese-made products in just over a month Photograph: Chip Somodevilla/Getty

Shares in Northern Rock plummeted more than 20% and there were heavy losses among other banks as the crisis-hit mortgage lender issued a profit warning and confirmed it had received emergency funding from the Bank of England. Photograph: Sang Tan/AP

October 8: RBS announces victory in the long fight for Dutch bank ABN Amro after rival bidder Barclays withdraws. Read the article Photograph: Rick Nederstigt/Getty

October 25: Microsoft takes a stake Facebook that values the social networking internet business started by 23-year-old Mark Zuckerberg at $15bn. Read the article Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP

Stan O’Neal, Merrill Lynch
Total remuneration: £196.7m (since 1999 or during length of service)
Bank market capitalisation (August 2007): £30.9bn
Now: Merrill Lynch bought by Bank of America
Credit crunch hits (since August 2007): £60.5bn
Photograph: PR

The internet search engine Google has been named as Britain's top 'superbrand', after it beat Microsoft for the premier spot, according to a YouGov survey Photograph: David Paul Morris/Getty

Chuck Prince, Citigroup
Total remuneration: £77.5m (since 1999 or during length of service)
Bank market capitalisation (August 2007): £114.8bn
Bank market capitalisation (now): £13.0bn
Credit crunch hits (since August 2007): £140.6bn
Photograph: Yoshiko Kusano/EPA

November 9: The iPhone, the most hyped gadget of the year, launches in Britain to a rapturous reception. Read the article Photograph: PR

November 16: Northern Rock boss Adam Applegarth steps down. Read the article Photograph: PA

The oil price will shoot back through $100 a barrel as soon as economic conditions return to normal, and will break through $200 threshold by 2030, say officials at the International Energy Agency Photograph: Pablo Krisch/AP

The Bank of England's monetary policy committee cut interest rates by a quarter-point to 5% in an attempt to counteract the effects of the global credit crunch on mortgage markets. Read the article Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

December 12: The Bank of England and three other central banks inject £50bn into the markets on meltdown fears. Read the article Photograph: Richard Drew/AP

The banking industry could push the world economy further into recession if it refuses to release funds, the governor of the Bank of England, Mervyn King, warned. Read the article Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA