On 17 July 2008, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced that it has entered a consent agreement that will require Pernod Ricard (Pernod) to end its Stolichnaya Vodka distribution agreement with Spirits International BV (SPI) as a condition to approving Pernod´s US$9 billion acquisition of V&S Vin & Spirit (V&S), the owner of the Absolut Vodka brand. Pernod also must establish information firewalls to prevent its employees from acquiring competitively sensitive information about spirit brands owned by Fortune Brands (Fortune), which is in a joint venture with V&S to distribute Fortune´s Beam Global distilled spirit brands. Pernod will assume V&S´s role in the joint venture as part of the acquisition. The announcement came on the same day that the FTC issued an administrative complaint challenging the proposed acquisition