Corporate America the big winner in Beijing

WE GOT our full measure of Olympic moments in the Beijing Games, topped by Michael Phelps’s eight gold medals and Usain Bolt’s lightning sprints.

Nonetheless, some of the greatest feats took place in corporate suites, where the Olympics’ global sponsors calculated huge returns on their investments.

General Electric’s NBC soared past its $1 billion (€700m) ad revenue target by delivering the biggest TV audience for a non-US Summer Games since Barcelona in 1992. Its industrial divisions sold $700m (€480m) of equipment to Olympics venues and other Beijing customers.