An accountant has been struck off for scamming Inland Revenue out of $280,000 by doctoring his employer's tax returns to gain false donation rebates.

A cause credited for putting educational computers in the hands of millions of children across the world will come full-circle for one of its Kiwi-born founders today, when he launches the One Laptop Per Child programme here.

The deal will raise $1.88 billion instead of the maximum $2.25 billion for the 49 per cent share, and values Meridian at $3.84 billion.

The $7.26 billion of revenue for the top 100 companies is a 3.7 per cent increase on last year.

Forget Richie McCaw and Dan Carter - NZ's most adored brands are chocolate and ice cream.

The chances of the Govt raising $5 billion to $7 billion from its partial assets sales is looking dimmer after details of No 2 sale, Meridian, were announced last night.

New Zealand tech stocks continued to soar today. Cloud accounting company Xero touched a new high of $29.30 - giving it a market capitalisation of $3.7 billion.

A Greenpeace-commissioned report shows dramatic blow-out effects of a deep-sea oil spill, but the industry says it's "science fiction".

The New Zealand dollar has jumped to its highest in more than five months.

Shares in medical research company Pacific Edge surged nearly 50% to a new all-time high last night.

A casual chat with the right person can give you that networking edge .

KiwiSaver funds with higher exposure to shares were the best performers over the September quarter, according to Morningstar.

Push for higher volumes compromising our greatest export, write Gareth Morgan and Geoff Simmons. "The future of NZ's dairy industry should lie in quality, not quantity."

The key question is whether Labour will stay on song with the bilateral positioning that has assured NZ extraordinary clout in trade negotiations, writes Fran O'Sullivan.

City's unemployment at lowest level since 2011 with average pay up to $1135 a week, writes Anne Gibson.

Solid Energy has secured its restructuring deal with most of its banks and the Government following a series of meetings today in Christchurch.

In the latest interview in our Meet the CEOs business video series, 2degrees chief executive Stewart Sherriff talks to Herald reporter Hamish Fletcher.