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PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) is to launch a portal that will transform the entire organisation into an e-business and provide a sophisticated workspace for clients and staff alike.

The Vodafone Airtouch Group has sold Orange to France Telecom for £25.1 billion ($37.9 billion). The deal will be settled by a cash payment of £13.8 billion and the issue to Vodafone of 129.2 million France Telecom shares valued at £11.3 billion.

Lucent Technologies has bought optical networking company Chromatis Networks for $4.5 billion. The acquisition of Chromatis will enable Lucent to bring the bandwidth-expanding power of optical technology directly to its business customers.

Doug Stainton Group tax director, Diageo

There has been debate over the past two years as to how, if at all, the UK's double tax relief system should be modernized. The general consensus appeared to be that only minor changes were necessary, and that the basic principles should be retained unchanged. In particular, moves to an exemption method, or to onshore pooling of tax credits, were considered to be no improvement on the status quo. It was therefore a major shock when it became apparent immediately following the UK budget that one of the most widely used methods of maximizing double tax relief, which had been implicitly accepted by the UK Inland Revenue for many years, was to be abolished.

On May 15 2000, the US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released Announcement 2000-48, containing additional guidance for financial institutions wanting to act as qualified intermediaries (QIs). The announcement supplements Rev. Proc. 2000-12 that set out the final version of the model QI agreement.

Corporate taxation – stock options

Spain has included within its corporation tax law an anti-abuse clause based on article 11 of the EU Merger Directive. But difficulties in translation have caused problems. Jesús López Tello of Uría Menéndez, Madrid describes the outcome

Dewey Ballantine LLP

Fenwick & West LLP