Fact or Fiction 2013
Six of these stories happened in 2013, six didn’t – can you spot the real ones?
1 Ex-Goldman Sachs-er “Fabulous” Fabrice Tourre pulled out a love letter as part of his defence during his trial in New York.
2 The Lloyd’s of London building was sold to a Malaysian firm for £300m.
3 Tesco was fined £300,000 over some strawberries.
4 Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer was dubbed the world’s worst CEO.
5 Michael O’Leary announced he would step back from the spotlight at Ryanair to focus on his hotel business.
6 WHSmith’s long serving chief executive Kate Swann announced she couldn’t wait to step down and settle into the 50 Shades trilogy.
7 The skyscraper dubbed the Walkie Scorchie on Fenchurch Street set a carpet on fire.
8 Starbucks in Canary Wharf launched a new treat called a craffle, a mix between a croissant and a waffle.
9 Mark Carney (inset) referenced The X-Factor in his forward guidance speech in October.
10 Hedge Fund heartthrob Greg Coffey announced his return to trading having retired for just four months.
11 It was suggested that the supervision of Libor should move to Paris.
12 KPMG banned the use of the word “innovation” among its analysts.
1. True. 2. False – it was sold to a Chinese firm. 3. True – it was fined for misleading customers over its “half price” strawberries. 4. True – by Forbes magazine 5. False 6. True 7. True 8. False – it was a cronut 9. False – he name checked Jake Bugg in a different speech. 10. False – as far as we know, he is still retired. 11. True 12. False (but wouldn’t it be good if it was true).