Danish-baiting, flat-pack, hotdog monger Ikea will launch a mobile phone business this week in a tie-up with T-Mobile, who will provide pre-pay services. The new service, Mobile Family is aimed at the 1.4 million people on the Ikea loyalty programme. To kick start the service the firm will give each of its 9,500 employees a mobile phone (which they have to build themselves) and £5 credited SIM card. Similar deals have already been carried out at Asda, Tesco and Warephone Carhouse. Its a good way to find new customers: Vodafone has into new territory by launching virtual networks with Lebara Mobile that cater for Britain’s immigrant population - a market worth an estimated £500m a year - with cheap international calls to Africa, south-east Asia, India, South America and eastern Europe.

With BT announcing a £1.5bn investement to get the UK into the braodband superleague, here’s something to talk about in your job interview: It seems Dragon, Peter Jones’ acting isn’t the only scary thing in the new BT ads. The Gremlins stopping him doing his no doubt fascinating work are apparently giving some (cotton-wool) children nightmares. The commercial carried an “ex kids” restriction by Clearcast, the body responsible for vetting ads before they are seen by the public, meaning it should not be shown in or around programmes targeted at children or that have a specific appeal to them. But 11 complaints have come through to the Advertising Standards Authority and that apparently warrants an investigation. BT’s take on it was to say that in the wider context of films and computer games aimed at children the ad was “fairly tame”. Luckily the ASA agreed and said the Gremlins were likely to be seen as “comedic rather than threatening”. A lot like Theo Paphitis.

20-somethings are more interested in job satisfaction than money. Just 18% of managers feel money was their primary consideration when taking a job. Agree? Just as well; come into my tent; cross my palm with silver and let’s have a long look at my ball. I’ve seen the future: according to new research from a survey of 3,300 people, women’s salaries plateau at £35k once they reach 35 years of age – many women then begin to earn less as they get older. The average male salary peaks between the ages of 41-45 at £45k, and then fall back to £35k after that. The message for both sexes is “save,” “plan for your future.” Not if you’re my old friend Arun Sarin, the outgoing boss of Vodafone. He’s set to receive £22m as a golden cheerio when he leaves the firm, credited with having turned the brand into a global player. At just 53 years old, he throws my bloody salary calculator into a spin!

An estimated 5m Apple iPhone handsets have been shifted around the world, but only 350,000 of them in Europe – barley scratching the cheek of the global market of 1bn handsets where Nokia rules supreme. Well, not anymore…the new iPhone, paraded before drooling geeks this week, is marketed specifically to help boss Steve Jobs achieve his target of selling 10m by the end of the year. Apple’s original approach gave the company an estimated 15% per cent of the operator’s average revenue per user (exclusively O2 in the case of the UK). Now, operators will fork out to cover a proportion of the cost of the phone, and Apple will take a smaller share of that revenue but take more of a cut of any applications sold through the handset. The phone launches across 11 countries, including the UK, tomorrow at a strting retail price of £99.

Henry T Nicolas III is the 48 year-old 6ft 6in tycoon who founded technology company Broadcom. Though he left the boardroom five years ago, the firm is now charging him with fraud (which he flatly denies) of backdating stock options. Fraud is one thing, but the trial will throw up eye-watering charges of how Nicolas III acquired drugs and strippers, and had the suppliers invoice the company under the headings like “party favours” and “refreshments.” There’s astounding stories coming forward: the pilot of his private jet having to put on an oxygen mask because of the smog of marijuana! Slipping an E into a colleague’s drink! A warehouse for the storage and distribution of cocaine!  This is one boardroom scandal worth watching…I’ll keep you posted!