JANUARY
Debugged: Phones, power, planes and pretty much everything else, as the millennium bug fails to usher in the end of life as we know it. "Just wait"say the doomsayers. Until markets re-open. Until the end of the financial year. Until ... The wait goes on.
A bargain: Warehouse shares, most popular pick among 13 brokers asked to choose the best shares of 2000. (And didn't they do well.)
Probing: The Securities Commission, launching an investigation into trading in Fletcher Challenge shares before the group revealed its restructuring plans in December 1999.
Buying: Natural Gas Corp, signing a deal to purchase 75.8 per cent of Transalta NZ for $834 million.
Selling: Out of Ansett NZ, News Corp, negotiating a $42 million deal with a local consortium.
Deep in their own product: Peter Briggs and Jeff Verheggen, directors of organic chicken fertiliser company Max Resources, after the Securities Commission finds they broke the law by failing to reveal the extent of their shareholdings.
How long it seems: "New Zealand is not prone to slow recoveries. When it goes it goes." Economist Alex Sundakov suffers a slight case of premature excitement as figures show strong exports, domestic sales and improving company profits.
FEBRUARY
Winning bet: Sky City's $230 million bid for Adelaide Casino.
Feels like deja vu all over again: Internet service provider Ihug's latest bid to find a corporate best friend. In 1999 it was Sky TV which was to take a 30 per cent stake in Ihug. This time round it's a merger with movie/property company Force Corp.
Foiled: TVNZ, as the Government decides against letting the people's network buy into the brave new world of digital TV.
We have our doubts about: The Insurance Council's claim that at-work deaths are down 50 per cent and claims 40 per cent lower after just five months of privatised workplace insurance.
Taking the controls: Air New Zealand, confirming it will pay $A508 million to take full control of Ansett Australia, creating the world's 20th biggest airline in the process.
Growing West: Carter Holt Harvey, spending $423 million buying plants from CSR to become Australia's biggest panel and timber supplier.
Tying the knot: Telstra NZ and Saturn Communications, announcing a merger and plans to spend $1.1 billion over five years to extend cable service to the five main centres.
Hugh's calling?: Fletcher's the answer, as the Government announces that the former Fletcher Challenge boss will chair an inquiry into the telecommunications industry.
MARCH
Riding high: The maritime industry, reaping an estimated $80 million from the America's Cup, with the prospect of lots more work between now and the next challenge.
Squabbling, loudly: Business and the Government, as Helen Clark's troops make good on their pledge to restore the ACC's monopoly on workplace insurance and expunge the Employment Contracts Act from the statute books.
E-lusive: The returns promised by new age company Global-e Investments, hitting town with a marketing blitz aimed at selling a novel mix of bonds and raffle tickets.
Exit, minus a deal: Singapore Airlines chief executive Cheong Choong Kong, departing these shores without his hoped-for agreement to buy 25 per cent of Air New Zealand.
They're back: Those prophets of deregulation Sir Michael Fay and David Richwhite, among a group of wealthy individuals planning to put money into Australasian high-tech and telecommunications
companies.
Making a connection: Telecom, buying a 5.7 per cent stake in publisher Independent Newspapers.
Developing: Jim Anderton's plans, as he announces that the Ministry of Commerce will become the Ministry of Economic Development and the formation of a new body called Industry New Zealand.
Unfinished: Shed 24 on Auckland's Princes Wharf, as construction firm Goodall ABL goes into voluntary liquidation.
APRIL
Bigger cheese: Pizza Hut, announcing plans to almost double by buying 53 Eagle Boys outlets for $28.3 million.
Going, going, gone to the man in the Viking helmet: Fletcher Paper, sold to Norway's Norske Skog for $5 billion.
Shelling out: Former Fletcher Challenge chairman Kerry Hoggard, paying $58,000 to former Fletcher shareholders to atone for buying their shares just a day before a major announcement boosted prices in December 1999.
Free at last: Internet access, as the country's first truly free internet service provider, i4free, launches Ð and lands right in a convoluted legal battle with Telecom.
Stung: The country's beekeepers, by the discovery of the Varroa mite in a South Auckland apiary, with dire prospects for their $50 million a year industry.
Battered: Everything 'e', as overseas investors decide the new paradigm isn't what it was cracked up to be. Local victims include Christchurch e-tailer EstarOnline, putting listing plans on hold.
Left at the altar (again): Ihug, as would-be mergee Force Corp decides that movie projectors are all the technology it needs for now.
Hard to swallow: DB Group, as would-be owner Asia Pacific Breweries' takeover offer stalls at 75 per cent.
Going west: Lion Nathan, confirming rumours that its head office is moving to Sydney.
MAY
Remaindered: Whitcoulls, back in the sale bin four years after it was picked up by US Office Products for $230 million.
Nice one: Carter Holt Harvey's $202 million profit for the year to March, up 226 per cent on 1999's result.
Cut off: Vodafone's Kiwi customers, left off the invitation list when the cellphone operator asks Australian clients to buy shares in the company.
On air: CanWest, snapping up 56 per cent of the country's second-largest radio group, RadioWorks (formerly Radio Pacific) to add to its already extensive collection (TV3, TV4, More FM).
Revealed, to universal acclaim (not): AMP's plan for a 31-storey tower smack dab on the Auckland waterfront.
Predatory: Carter Holt Harvey, rules the High Court, in pricing its new polyester/wool insulation below cost in an effort to beat off an upstart competitor.
Drinking up: Lion Nathan, launching a lightning raid to acquire 19.9 per cent of Montana Group - ahead of an expected move by Aussie rival Foster's - with plans to go higher.
On the shelf (for now): Two more sharemarket floats, as ANZ Bank and Genesis Research and Development postpone their listing plans.
Under pressure (again): Fisher & Paykel, with analysts renewing calls to spin off its lucrative healthcare division.
JUNE
Grounded: E-tailer FlyingPig, dropping plans to expand across the Tasman through a merger with Australian online shop TheSpot, then laying off half its staff.
Off to the mall: Westfield Trust, to spend $570 million on the 54 per cent of St Lukes Group it doesn't already own.
Squeezed: Frucor shares, hitting the market at $1.50, well down on their estimated listing price of $1.95 - $2.25.
Deepest red: The current account deficit, hitting a record low for the year to March - $8.54 billion.
Taken for granted: Researchers and developers, disappointed by Government plans to offer them grants, not tax breaks.
New name: After 13 years and $200 million in accumulated losses, it's goodbye Ansett, hello Qantas NZ.
Still crazy for a bargain: The Warehouse, buying Australian discounters Clint's Crazy Bargains and Silly Solly's for $A105 million.
Cooking: Fisher & Paykel, serving up a $54.4 million profit for the year to March, up 194 per cent on the previous year.
In breach: Of insider trading laws, former Fletcher Challenge chairman Kerry Hoggard, says the Securities Commission.
Hugh says: Telecommunications should have its own regulator, and the Kiwi Share needs to be enshrined in legislation, recommends the Fletcher inquiry into the industry.
JULY
Bailing out: Air New Zealand managing director Jim McCrea, exiting abruptly after 44 years with the company and its predecessor.
Diminishing returns: For 12,500 investors in Waltus Investments' $643 million property portfolio, as the company moves to pool 29 syndicates to counter a soft property market.
Raiding the orchard: Guinness Peat Group and FR Partners, each seeking 19.9 per cent of newly corporatised apple exporter Enza.
The shareholders are revolting: Towards Fisher & Paykel, forcing it to drop a plan to reward executive directors with 110,000 shares at 33 per cent off the market price.
Not prosecuting: The Serious Fraud Office, concluding after much investigation that it would be too hard to prove criminal intent on the part of anyone linked to the Winebox tax fraud allegations.
Armistice signed: Between Telecom and Telstra Saturn, agreeing to an out-of-court settlement of their long-running war over interconnection payments.
AUGUST
Cheque's in the mail: For the ASB Bank Community Trust, selling its remaining 25 per cent stake in ASB Group to Commonwealth Bank of Australia for $560 million.
Comfortably seated: Singapore Airlines, buying 25 per cent of Air New Zealand and taking three places around the boardroom table.
Seeking a new source of income: Thousands of Telecom shareholders, as the company announces plans to halve its dividend to pay for expansion.
Bullets over Broadway: As Westfield plans a $300 million development on one side of Newmarket's golden mile, while developer Denis Jen has his own vision for a much-expanded 277 on the other side of the street.
Normally speaking: Advantage Group, criticised by the Stock Exchange market surveillance panel for buffing up its result by announcing a "normalised profit", rather than the - somewhat lower - non-normalised sort.
Refloated: Genesis Research and Development's plan for a $34.5 million float and sharemarket listing, put on hold earlier in the year amid market turmoil.
Exchanging glances: The ASX and the NZSE, beginning official merger talks.
Is that clear: Shell asks the Commerce Commission as it seeks permission to buy Fletcher Energy.
SEPTEMBER
Disjointed: The Village Force / Hoyts joint venture set up in 1999, with the movie companies deciding to go their separate ways rather than keep fighting for Commerce Commission blessing for their marriage of convenience.
Bigger red: The Warehouse, planning a dozen new stores over the coming year, and expanding many existing ones too.
Vintner's luck: For the country's biggest winemaker, Montana, receiving Commerce Commission clearance to swallow the industry's number two, Corbans.
Hacked off: $24.4 million, from the value of AMP NZ Office Trust's properties, as the trust revalues to reflect the weak property market.
If you must: Say Waltus investors, to plans to roll 27 syndicates into one $227 million company, but only after a marathon eight hours of meetings.
First officer: Gary Toomey, taking the chief executive's seat at Air New Zealand, fresh from the co-pilot's spot at Qantas.
Slip sliding away: New Zealand's competitiveness ranking, according to the World Economic Forum, demoting us three places to 16th most competitive nation in the world.
In store: Nick Lowe, former Pacific Retail chief executive, taking over from Wayne Walden at Farmers Deka.
OCTOBER
Full of beans: Hastings, as Heinz Wattie invests $100 million in two factories.
New ERA: Employment Relations Act takes effect, meaning (pick one): (a) justice in the workplace, or (b) Mangere bridge all over again.
Bad language: From Don Brash, using the s-word - 'stagflation' - in front of Parliament's finance and expenditure committee.
Down the line: 3400 of Tranz Rail's 4000 staff, as the company reveals plans to contract out just about everything.
Rejected: By the Commerce Commission, Shell's $4.6 billion bid for Fletcher Energy.
Takeover rules, OK: From the Government, announcing plans for a takeovers code aimed at protecting minority shareholders.
China blue: For Lion Nathan, looking for ways to cut its losses after five profitless years in the People's Republic.
Out in the cold: 80,000 Brierley shareholders, as the company holds its first annual meeting in its new home, Bermuda.
Revealed in all its glory: Westfield's plan for Newmarket - 71,000 sq m, 11 storeys, 12 movie screens, 200-plus shops, 3000 carparks ...
Getting to know you: Government and business, as 11 cabinet ministers and 85 corporate types sit down to thrash out their differences in private at the business summit.
NOVEMBER
Second time lucky: For Ruapehu's Whakapapa skifield, receiving Commerce Commission clearance to buy neighbouring Turoa, after an preliminary decision said no.
Outed: By the Herald, Wilson Neill executive director Paul Hyslop, as Mr EF, the man who made a quick $40,000 trading Fletcher shares on the basis of inside information.
Feel the width: The Southern Cross cable lights up, bringing lots more bandwidth for internet users.
Turbulence ahead: For Air New Zealand, warning that profit will fall, less than four weeks after the prospectus for its rights issue said things were going swimmingly.
Signing off: Stefan Preston, leaving Pacific Retail Group; Nate Smith, from Sky TV.
Going all the way: Lion Nathan, seeking Commerce Commission clearance to take its 28.2 per cent Montana stake to full ownership.
Laughing all the way to the you-know-what: WestpacTrust. Just because you're New Zealand's least-liked bank doesn't mean you can't be the most profitable (result for the year to September: $409 million ).
Judged bankrupt: Mr Britomart, Jihong Lu.
Early Christmas: For DB shareholders, as it announces plans to give them the $151 million that Montana paid for Corbans.
Cleared: Shell's bid for Fletcher Energy, but only after it agrees to sell some Fletcher assets.
DECEMBER
Take me to the water: Japan's Nissui tells the Treaty of Waitangi Fisheries Commission after the two seal a deal to buy Brierley's half of Sealord for $207 million.
Going fishing: The IRD, demanding the identities of the owners of 80,000 websites.
Blending: NZ Dairy Group and Kiwi Dairies, announcing their long, long-awaited merger with a plan to join forces by June next year.
Failed to deliver: National Mail's hopes of taking on NZ Post, as the newcomer concedes defeat, lays off 200 staff and puts 650 blue mailboxes up for sale.
Market applause: For Fisher & Paykel, revealing plans to hive off its healthcare division, but not before the second half of 2001.
Strange brew: Wilson Neill, as entrepreneur Tim Connell takes 30 per cent and creates the country's first
magazine/website/ e-tail/communications/pub/restaurant
conglomerate.
Not if but when: Says Tower Corporation chief executive James Boonzaier, on the prospect of company HQ shifting to Australia.
Looking up (next year): Interest rates, warns Reserve Bank governor Don Brash, with never a mention of stagflation.
Too low: Lion Nathan's bid for 51 per cent of Montana, and the rival bid from Montana chairman Peter Masfen, says an independent appraisal, valuing the company's shares at $4.16-$4.64 rather than the $3.20-$3.80 on the table.
Too ambitious: The transtasman stock exchange merger timetable, says the NZSE, delaying a decision until next year.
Herald Online features:
2000 - Year in Review
2000 - Month by month
2000 - The obituaries
Taking care of business: 2000
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