Business week in pictures

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, warned that the economy has hit a 'soft patch' and consumers must brace themselves for a continued squeeze on living standards, with inflation likely to hit 5% this year Photograph: Andrew Winning/Reuters

Thousands of jobs are on the line at HSBC as the UK's biggest bank shifts its focus from the high street to commercial and investment banking as part of its new management team's strategy to 'step up the pace and intensity of change'. After taking over in January following a messy boardroom row last year, chief executive Stuart Gulliver wants savings of up to $3.5bn (£2.14bn) Photograph: Ym Yik/EPA

A multimillion pound pay deal for António Horta-Osório, the chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, is facing intense scrutiny from shareholders ahead of next week's annual meeting Photograph: Micha Theiner/City AM/Rex Features

It was the City of London office complex that came to embody the brash, flash 'loadsamoney' culture of the 1980s economic boom. Now the Broadgate complex is being threatened with the wrecking ball – just as it is being considered as the first major building of its era to be given listed status Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Billionaire hedge fund boss Raj Rajaratnam is facing up to 20 years in prison after being found guilty of insider dealing in a New York court – convicted by a series of recorded phone calls in which he received illegal tips from a network of highly placed informants Photograph: Louis Lanzano/AP

Former members of pop group Liberty X and hundreds of other wealthy investors have suffered a blow after the UK supreme court ruled in favour of the Revenue in a £1.5bn tax avoidance case Photograph: Chris Jackson/Getty Images

Dixons is pinning its hopes on the iPad 2 and its new megastores after reporting that sales are continuing to fall Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

An agreement has been reached to end the long-running British Airways cabin crew dispute, the Unite union has confirmed. The deal is being put to a mass meeting of Unite members near Heathrow airport and is expected to be recommended for acceptance in a ballot Photograph: Toby Melville/Reuters

The staff bonus pool at J Sainsbury has fallen by a quarter, despite the supermarket chain posting higher sales and profits for the last financial year. Sainsbury's 150,000-strong workforce will share £60m, the company announced Photograph: Rui Vieira/PA

Microsoft's acquisition of Skype, its biggest ever, is an $8.5bn (£5bn) gamble to try to catch up with Apple and Google Photograph: Paul Sakuma/AP

BG turned up the pressure on the government when it warned future oil and gas exploration projects in the North Sea would be put on hold following a controversial windfall tax on offshore producers. s well as being hit by higher tax, BG's numbers were affected by the disruption to production following civil unrest in Egypt and Tunisia, flooding in Australia and the temporary closure of two North Sea platforms for repair and maintenance Photograph: Giles Barnard/BG/VisMedia

Glencore will press ahead with plans to launch the Hong Kong side of its stock market float, dismissing another major sell-off in the commodities market and insisting demand for the offer remained strong. Ivan Glasenberg, the Glencore chief executive, said the decline in commodity prices was "due to some froth" in the market Photograph: Bobby Yip/Reuters