Hear the one about Alcatel NV stake building in Plessey Co Plc? Yes, well – but it was good for 16m shares traded and a few pence on the share price Tuesday, so it must be accorded a grain of attention: Alcatel is the telecommunications arm of CGE SA of Paris, and so its only logical interest in Plessey would be in the telecommunications side – move in, kill off System X and replace it with one of Alcatel’s surfeit of switches – but there is no telecommunications in Plessey, because as soon as a bid for the company succeeds, GEC Plc has the right to buy Plessey’s 50% of GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd, and would immediately do so; if anyone wants the telecommunications side, they have to bid for GEC, because the poison pill is less potent when it is Plessey that has to buy the 50% – just now it would be a mite strapped for cash.
