11.   Deutsche Bank announced alliances with SAP, a software company, and AOL Europe, an Internet service provider, to provide financial services online.

12.   Earlier this year, Blue Cross plans in Illinois and Texas agreed to merge, and five Blue Cross companies in New England also recently announced an alliance.

13.   Earlier this month, Kirch and British Sky Broadcasting Plc announced an alliance that linked the two biggest program libraries in Europe.

14.   Even when IBM abruptly dropped its title sponsorship a month after the alliance was announced, locally based Dial Corp came forward as a backup sponsor.

15.   Finnair, which joined One World after the original alliance was announced, will begin participating in the program later this year.

16.   For example, AOL Time Warner announced an alliance this week with a China-backed conglomerate, Shanghai Industrial Holdings, to invest in media-related projects.

17.   For example, Andersen Consulting has announced various alliances this year, including one with Microsoft, to provide e-commerce advice to large companies.

18.   GTE also announces an alliance with Cisco Systems and says it has restructured its telephone operations unit.

19.   H-P announced an alliance with Microsoft Corp. to jointly market a line of computers to small business owners.

20.   In fact, other alliances could be announced later this week.