West German automaker Daimler-Benz AG wants to take a 5% stake in Matra SA when the 51%-state-owned French electronics and defence group is privatised. The French government plans to retain a golden share in Matra that would allow it to veto any alliance or acquisition move that was deemed to be contrary to the national interest. Daimler already controls industrial electronics group AEG AG – which in turn owns Florida minimaker Modular Computer Systems Inc, ModComp, as well as the aerospace group Dornier. Announcing his company’s plans at the Frankfurt Motor Show, Daimler’s new president Edzard Reuter said Daimler would seek to subscribe for 5% of the capital – 10% of the shares to come on offer – when Matra is returned to the private sector. He noted that Matra had leading edge products and technologies, particularly in the space exploitation field, and he believed that an alliance between Matra, Dornier and AEG would represent an important step towards transnational collaboration on a European scale. Matra has scores of collaborations in the computer and microelectronics fields, the most important being the tie-up with Norsk Data on superminis, and the two semiconductor joint ventures, Matra-Harris and Matra-Harris-Intel. It also has a licence agreement with Encore Computer Corp for its multiprocessor Unix machines, and with Sun Microsystems on workstations. In telecommunications it has agreements with Nokia Mobira of Finland and Siemens on cellular telephones and equipment, and is Ericsson’s partner in the buy-out of CGCT from the French government.
