But the judge claimed it was in the public interest to discover how far up the chain of command knowledge of the rigging went, noting "the cat is out of the bag".

BBC: Barclays senior staff 'linked' to Libor affair

And how far up the chain of command did knowledge go?

WSJ: Review & Outlook: The IRS Targets Conservatives

Chief executive of Sainsbury's, Justin King, said Tesco's announcement "highlighted how important a detailed knowledge of and involvement in your supply chain is".

BBC: Tesco pledges to sell meat from 'closer to home'

Besides, a company might want to keep control of its supply chain to protect its brand and knowledge.

ECONOMIST: Re-engineering in real time

When our social sector is successful at moving our attention and allocating more resources up the chain from data to information to knowledge and to wisdom, that will truly be an anecdote worth retelling.

FORBES: Moving from Big Data to Big Wisdom

There is so little knowledge of GM foods here that a leading Canadian supermarket chain says it cannot call a new range of fresh vegetables GM free because few consumers would know what the term means and it might even put them off.

BBC: Fight on GM food labelling

This is crucial knowledge for not only satisfying the demand, but also reducing supply chain costs and increasing margins.

FORBES: The Big Value In Big Data: Seeing Customer Buying Patterns