Far from the political shenanigans circling the hostile takeover bid by Vodafone of Mannesmann, another bout of confusion has appeared: just how much is the all-share offer worth? Admittedly, Mannesmann CEO Klaus Esser doesn't give a monkeys over the extent of the deal -- he'd much rather just keep his job -- but the variation in bids across the business press does put a question mark over their mathematical abilities. The following were taken from today's (29 November) stories. Any non-sterling amounts have been converted using an online currency converter and placed in brackets after the sum. Starting with the lowest:

• The Telegraph: £77bn
• BBC: $125bn (£78bn)
• Daily Mail: £79bn
• The Guardian: £79bn
• The Times: £79bn
• Reuters: 129 billion euros (£81bn)
• CMP's TechWeb: $134bn (£84bn)
• Bloomberg: $146bn (£91bn)
• Financial Times: Euro 253 a share (smart arses)

It's good to see that three nationals agree but then where has The Telegraph's calculation come from and why the hell is the BBC quoting in dollars? And what is Bloomberg on about -- does it know something we don't? We'll be glad when all this is over. ®