At the height of typhoon “Egay” last Thursday, Microsoft Corp. lost its Philippine managing director TJ Javier.

Now, the official line during the all-employees’ meeting was Javier wanted to move on to better opportunities. Interestingly, an employee, who wanted to know the “real reason” why Javier was leaving, was also asked to leave that same day.

And then, of course, there are the sales figures of the Philippine office. 

In bidding out the Metrowalk-Pasig property, the Presidential Commission on Good Government insisted that the parking spaces be included in the per-square-meter accounting of how much the annual lease should cost.

Currently covering a large portion of the 18-hectare property, the free parking spaces (read: no parking fees are charged) have more, uhm,  action than the “gimmick places” that it surrounds, be it day or night.

Interestingly, a row of motels is just 10 minutes away.

Did you know 1: Bakeshop chain Goldilocks is launching this November a “Willie Wonka”—like tour for schoolchildren right in its Mandaluyong head office.  Unlike Charlie, however, children don’t even have to be Goldilocks patrons.

The tour is basically baking 101, starting from the cracking of about 100,000 eggs a day and ending with the baking of all those yummy cakes and pastries.

By the way, “Willie Wonka” is a Nestlé brand.

Did you know 2: Three years after Philippine passports have been declared as no longer valid for travel to Iraq, the number of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) have doubled to about 10,000. Most of the OFWs are based in 64 foreign coalition bases located outside the so-called “Green Zone” in Baghdad, the so-called safest part in the capital which has been breached by attacks from Iraqi militants.

And the numbers are expected to grow further as OFWs are lured by the high pay and easy access to American goodies like apple pie and Thanksgiving turkey.

Banco de Oro Universal Bank chairman Teresita Sy-Coson is indeed a driven woman. The talk in Binondo is she wants her dad, Henry Sy (read: truly blessed at about 80 years old) to still be around when BDO becomes the country’s largest bank.

Right now, BDO is within striking distance of number one, Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co., and has the financial clout of the SM empire to make that happen within the next one or two years. 

Now, there was a time not so long ago when Metrobank chairman George S.K. Ty would have already done something to protect the bank’s top ranking but, under his son and current president Arthur Ty, the bank is not so much interested in being the biggest as being the best bank ever.

Besides, Metrobank’s strategy seems to look outside the Philippines, particularly China, for its growth.

CERAMIC tile maker Mariwasa Manufacturing Inc. is setting its sights on new markets abroad to improve profitability, which the company committed under a debt restructuring deal with the International Finance Corp. (IFC).

IS, MIC: A tale of two stocks disgorging gains

ISLAND Information and Technology Inc. (IS) and Multitech Investments Corp. (MIC) have something in common that would not qualify them for inclusion in the portfolio of long-term investors who are in the stock market for dividends, either in cash or in stocks.

CEBU Holdings Inc., a listed real-estate developer and affiliate of property giant Ayala Land Inc., ended the first half with a 36-percent rise in net profit to P155.1 million from P114.3 million a year earlier.

Philippine stocks fell Friday, with the benchmark index completing its worst weekly loss since August 1998, on concern mortgage losses in the US will prompt hedge funds to sell emerging-market assets. Ayala Corp. and Ayala Land Inc. led the decline.

At the height of typhoon “Egay” last Thursday, Microsoft Corp. lost its Philippine managing director TJ Javier.

Now, the official line during the all-employees’ meeting was Javier wanted to move on to better opportunities. Interestingly, an employee, who wanted to know the “real reason” why Javier was leaving, was also asked to leave that same day.