"We see in Slack a once-in-a-generation company and platform. It's a central nervous system for so many companies."

Salesforce founder and CEO Marc Benioff was in a jubilant mood when he announced to shareholders that his company is buying work-chatting service Slack for $27.7 billion. 

The acquisition is by far the largest in his company's 21-year history and is aimed at allowing the two companies a better chance of competing with Microsoft, which dominates the industry.

Microsoft's thriving online suite of services, Office 365, includes the "Teams" chatting service, which includes many of the same features as Slack.

Benioff said the deal is "a match made in heaven." Only time will tell. 

Beyond multibillion deals, today's newsletter looks at how the humble Scotch egg could hold the key to saving England's pubs. Along with more details on the manufacturing process of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and an interview with an expert on the widespread, but underreported, crime of stealing water. 

Happy reading, 

Daniel Harries 

Digital correspondent 

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TOP HEADLINES:

U.S. President-elect Joe Biden says he won't immediately lift tariffs placed by President Donald Trump on many imports from China or break Trump's initial trade deal. "I'm not going to make any immediate moves, and the same applies to the tariffs," said Biden in an interview with the New York Times.

Meanwhile, European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell urged the EU and the U.S. to resolve their trade disputes after Biden takes office in January, creating a "new transatlantic agenda."

Germany's economy ministry made an 8.2 million euro ($9.9 million) contribution on to Siemens Energy's planned hydrogen plant in Chile, as a part of its broader national strategy to support hydrogen technology.

A group of environmental organizations backed by thousands of Dutch citizens launched a civil case on Tuesday against the energy giant Shell, asking a court to order the multinational to commit to reining in its carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030.

Airbnb, the vacation rental online marketplace, hopes to raise as much as $2.6 billion in its initial public offering this month. The San Francisco-based company said in it expects to offer 51.9 million common shares priced between $44 and $50 each, in a filing with securities regulators. 

Gambling group 888 Holdings said its annual core profit and revenue will exceed prior expectations, the third time the company has raised its forecast this year, as it benefits from a shift to online betting amid coronavirus restrictions.

Ryanair is close to placing an order for dozens of additional Boeing 737 MAX jets in a commercial boost to the U.S. plane maker after regulators lifted a 20-month safety grounding, industry sources, referenced by Reuters, said. 

Amazon stated that five companies, including Uber and JetBlue Airways, have joined its fund that invests in companies developing environmentally friendly technologies.

UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the conduct of directors of the collapsed fashion group Arcadia would be examined. "The secretary of state for business, enterprise and skills [Alok Sharma] has written to the Insolvency Service to look at the conduct of the Arcadia directors," Johnson told parliament.

WATCH: As COVID-19 restrictions ease across much of England, drinkers can go to the pub again as long as they have a "substantial meal" with their pint. The government has confirmed that a "Scotch egg" (a hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat and breadcrumbs) is a sufficient meal, could this quintessential British snack save the country's ailing pubs?

A recent report suggests that at least 50 percent, and possibly up to 70 percent of the world's clean water is stolen every year. In October, the University of Adelaide revealed the details of a study that claimed water was mainly stolen by farmers or other people with agricultural interests. One of the lead authors of the report, Adam Loch, spoke to CGTN Europe's The Agenda program on the matter. 

What are the ways in which people steal water? 

You can either be taking groundwater, for example, through a pump which doesn't belong to you, so that groundwater has been provided as a right to somebody to use on their farm or in their industry or whatever it might be, or even to to water their cattle, etc... And you sink an illegal well or even a legal well. And you take water when it's not your turn or where you don't have the right to do so. You're stealing that water. 

Who is this affecting? 

Well, predominantly, the people to whom the water belongs in the first instance, and so they're not getting their supply as they expected. So that will impact on their production. It'll impact on their livestock. It may impact on their drinking. It also has a bigger impact on the people who manage water on our behalf. 

Britain became the first Western country to endorse a COVID-19 vaccine, ordering 40m doses of the Pfizer-BionTech jab – enough for just under a third of the population, as two shots are needed per person.