Michel Berty, Secretary General for Cap Gemini Sogeti SA, said just before we closed for press last night that his company had only been negotiating with Hoskyns for a short time, not more than a couple of weeks, fuelling speculation that it was a latecomer to the race to take Hoskyns’ hand: he also said that the 1993 offer – see page 1 and page 5 – was the result of a decision by the Hoskyns management that Hoskyns must remain a public company in the short term; as for life after 1992, Berty said that Cap Gemini may change its identity at that time, as Europe transforms into a single market, although he discounted the possibility of a London listing for his company.