Johnson & Johnson workers who lost their jobs in Britain this week will be pleased to hear that not everyone at the US-based company is struggling.

CEO William Weldon has splashed out $8.5 million on two vacant waterfront lots in the millionaires' paradise of North Palm Beach in Florida — at the same time as
he announced up to 8,100 redundancies. Staff in the US are furious at the timing of the purchase, which he made from Jack Welch, former chairman and chief executive of General Electric.

* SPOTTED deep in animated conversation in the bar of the Berkeley Hotel: Terry Smith, boss of Collins Stewart and Tullett Prebon, and the Duchess of York. What could they have been talking about?

City has a thirst for brewers

GREENE King knows how to hold a party... The Suffolk brewer took thirsty City analysts to look at its operations north of the border. The trip appears to have worked. Greg “Touchy” Feehely at Altium Securities says he has taken the “opportunity to revisit the investment case for Greene King” despite the fact that “no new financial information was provided”. But hey, Feehely notes, “the retail business — 776 outlets — appears to be in a strong position”, the group has “strong foundations” and “management are doing as good a job as can be expected”. As such, Greene King is no longer an Altium “hold” but an out and out “buy”.

* ASTAIRE analyst Mark Brumby points out that a survey of drunks by the Royal Edinburgh Hospital shows heavy drinkers are paying an average of just 34p per unit of alcohol. The hospital concludes, he says, that the heaviest drinkers are paying a lower price per unit than the average consumer and therefore minimum price ruling would cut these boozers' consumption. The industry, of course, hates this kind of research but he may have a point. Asda has launched a four-for-£20 offer over the Halloween and Bonfire Night weekends in which it is selling boxes of 15 bottles of strong lager, Carlsberg Export, at the equivalent of 66p per pint or only 24p per unit of alcohol. “The price does represent something of a low point,” says Brumby.

* LATEST scam to hit America: fake “Bernie Madoff Auctions”. Acccording to Time magazine, sales of goods available “due to losses caused by Bernie Madoff” are springing up all over the country, detailing treasures as original art by Peter Max, Salvador Dalí and Norman Rockwell — as well as Rolex watches and “other flashy items” — that are to be sold to “recover losses from Ponzi scheme.” It quotes one man saying “I guess he thought [the link to Madoff] gave them more credibility.” Because King Ponzi was always the most credible and trustworthy bloke around.

Formula One drivers earn a cool $135 million

IT has been a bad year for Formula One — what with Honda pulling out and the Flavio Briatore “crashgate” scandal — but motorsport's top dogs still managed to rake in the cash. Between them, the 20 top Formula One drivers pocketed some $134.8 million, according to Tom Rubython of Sports Pro magazine, even though four of them went unpaid. And that's before sponsorship deals are included. Jenson Button might be forgiven for feeling a little hard done by though: the F1 champion took home $5 million — taking a pay cut to help his Brawn team make it to the grid — while his Ferrari rival Kimi Raikkonen made $45 million.

* BUT alas, poor Honda. Last year's accounts for its former F1 team — which became the World Championship winning Brawn GP — have recently been filed at Companies House. With very little other sponsorship, almost all the team's £170 million turnover was pumped in by the Japanese car giant. This was because Honda shunned the big corporate logos usually associated with motorsport for its “Earth Dreams” incarnation: perhaps the only company which could spend vast sums on trying to save the planet while participating in a sport which chugs out the CO2. Their reward for all this cash? A measly 14 points. Compared with a lot less money this year — Brawn has been forced to cut staff dramatically — but the driver's crown for driver Jenson Button and the constructor's title too in its maiden season.

* TROUBLE in toyland? Hamleys did not pay its annual subscription fee for its website name, Hamleys.com, so after the last rental period expired at the end of October, online shoppers were directed to the homepage of domain owner Network Solutions. Does that mean there are cash-flow problems lurking for the formerly-Baugur owned retailer? Network Solutions says it sends up to six reminders on expiration dates to clients, starting 105 days before the cut-off date. Hamleys' finance officer blamed the problem on a “glitch”...

* WHAT future for bmibaby, the now German-owned budget arm of British Midland, which launched in a blaze of publicity in 2002? After years of heavy losses, the brand is retrenching to its East Midlands Airport home with the loss of more than 150 jobs mainly pilots and cabin crew at Birmingham, Manchester and Cardiff.