Why does some big successful brands go bust?

Toast is back for a new series, taking a look at the decisions that often left investors burnt.

I'm Sean Farrington, a BBC business journalist. I'll be hearing about the hype.

They're going to do the deal that makes them the most money at that point of time.

And I'm picking what went wrong, talking to

owners and employees to ask, what can we learn? It was being undercut by similar rivals. It just

couldn't survive. Toast. Listen first on BBC Sounds. Thank you for downloading from the BBC.

For details of our complete range of podcasts and our terms of use,

go to BBCworldservice.com slash podcasts.

This is more or less, the statistical icing on the cake of life.

We make an edition of the programme for BBC Radio 4,

but this is a download of a special edition broadcast on the World Service.

Hello and welcome to more or less on the BBC World Service.

We're your weekly guide to the numbers in the news and in life, and I'm Tim Harford.

This week, which European nation's workers work the longest hours? The Germans? Or the Greeks? But first, Syria, where for months now there's been

bloody violence. Many have suggested the Syrian people are being oppressed by a cruel regime,

but others have argued there's significant support for the government there.

Here's a headline from an article published in the UK's Guardian newspaper.

Most Syrians back President Assad, but you'd never know from Western media.

The article went on to say that a survey had shown that 55% of Syrians do not want President Assad to resign. This statistic has been reported

widely by state-owned Iranian Press TV, The New York Times and others. So where did this 55%

figure come from? It came from an internet survey of the Arab world by UGov Syraj, the Dubai-based arm of the British polling firm,

...