Such is the obscurity of Softbank's tax arrangements, its corporate structure and the prospects of its investments that, to gain even a partial view of the firm's true value, you need to be a trained accountant, a stockmarket analyst and a private detective rolled into one.
She said: "What we're doing in a number of areas is setting up the sort ofarrangements that start to move us towards the NCA, the NCA structure and then review in due course what the appropriate relationship is with the SFO and the NCA".
That idea made so much sense that the two companies had reached agreement on most of the issues usually impeding cross-border mergers, such as legal structure, governance arrangements, business strategy and dividend policy.