Vodafone chief agrees to pump bonus back into company

Vodafone boss Chris Gent yesterday agreed to shift some of his £5m cash bonus into shares in the mobile phone company to pacify revolting shareholders. The proposal involves the telecomms CEO buying around 900,000 Vodafone shares during the next year and keeping them for a minimum of three years. This would add to his existing stockpile of 1.1 million shares in the business.

The move follows investor outrage at Gent's financial reward after the Mannesmann takeover. According to today's Independent, some had considered abstaining on the re-election of Lord MacLaurin - Vodafone chairman - at Thursday's annual meeting over the matter.

British itv outfit - ONDigital - is to create 1,500 new jobs at two call centres in Pembroke and Plymouth. The recruitment drive should help support the company's launch of its Net TV service in the autumn.

South London outfit Forbidden Technologies yesterday said it would launch high-quality video over the Net by the end of the year. The company, which floated on AIM four months ago at 20p a share, saw its share price leap 55p to 252.5p. Forbidden is headed by Eidos founder Stephen Streater.

AIM-listed Net investment house Jellyworks had less than £1 million left in the bank before it decided to merge with Shore Capital, according to the

. The new venture, once the merger is complete, is said to be valued at £250 million.

QXL.com has added a Belgian Website to its European empire. The online auctioneer now has 12 sites in Europe, including the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

Online discounter Priceline saw its share price fall 22 per cent yesterday on the announcement of disappointing results. Q2 revenues were $352 million compared with $314 million in Q1 and $112 million in Q2 1999. The company is moving toward profit but analysts expected greater things and the growing concern with e-commerce took its toll on Priceline. The company's CFO also evaded questions over whether it would hit profit next quarter. Click

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view on Priceline's business model.

Good news on the other hand for energy group Enron. The US company saw profits jump $67 million to $289 million and revenues went up 75 per cent. The boost has been put down to the popularity of online energy trading which has pulled in worldwide competition.

More tales from the bubble economy can be found at Cash Register. ®