After he left ICL Plc as the blue-eyed boy that had saved Britain’s only major mainframe manufacturer, and Guardian Young Businessman of the Year to boot, Geoff Cross spent about a year as Lord Weinstock’s transatlantic talent scout before vanishing from the public eye. The one deal he put together for GEC Plc was the acquisition of Chicago printing systems and equipment and office systems manufacture A B Dick Co – but even that one has failed to make an impact for the long term. Yesterday, GEC announced that it had agreed the sale of Dick to Paragon Holdings, an affiliate of Nesco Inc of Cleveland, Ohio. The company gave no further details of the sale but said it was in line with its strategic intention under new chief George Simpson to divest some of its smaller industrial division assets in due course.
