A lawsuit claiming that operators of West Glen Town Center violated terms of a lease with Tonic bar has been settled out of court. Details of the agreement are confidential, said Brad Schroeder, a Des Moines attorney who represented Tonic. Click here for related story in the Business Record.

Retail sales from November through Dec. 24 rose 3.6 percent from last year, according to SpendingPulse, an information service of MasterCard Advisors that estimates sales for all forms of payment, including cash, checks and credit cards, The New York Times reported. The increase, which does not include sales of automobiles and gasoline, was helped this year by an extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Adjusting the results for that extra day cuts the retailing industry’s sales increase to about 1 percent. Retail sales dropped 2.3 percent in 2008.

Mobile phone users prefer Facebook and Google, according to a survey reported by Mobile Marketer Daily. The survey by Strategy Analytics found that Google was preferred to Bing, the new search engine from Microsoft Corp., Mobile Marketer said. “The key finding is that Facebook and Google are the most desired brands to have on a mobile phone in both the (United States) and Britain,” said Chris Schreiner, senior analyst of user experience practice at Strategy Analytics in Boston. “The results for Google hint at the popularity that Google’s Android platform can achieve among smart phone owners, and the need users have for mobile search.”

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. reported 21,000 fewer employees than it had at the end of 2008 amid a slump at the firm’s manufacturing and retail units, Bloomberg reported. Berkshire and its subsidiaries have about 225,000 workers, the Omaha, Nebr.-based company said this week in regulatory filings. That’s 8.6 percent lower than the 246,083 disclosed in the 2008 annual report. Berkshire provided the jobs information in a document tied to its planned $26 billion takeover of Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corp. Buffett didn’t reply to a request, left with an assistant, for comment on the cuts, Bloomberg said. Berkshire has more than 70 subsidiaries that sell products including Geico auto insurance, Fruit of the Loom T-shirts and Dairy Queen ice cream. Profit at the firm’s manufacturing, service and retail businesses plunged by more than half in the first nine months of the year.