Shortly after GEC Siemens Plc launched its hostile takeover bid for Plessey Co Plc, the University of Sussex did an analysis of the proposals, coming down heavily against the bid being allowed to proceed: that analysis pretty much sank without trace, but Plessey now has a rather more powerful champion in the shape of management consultants McKinsey & Co, which has abandoned the fence on which consultants usually sit to come down on Plessey’s side, on the grounds that the company has started doing many of the things that McKinsey thought were necessary if the UK electronics industry were to survive in the 1990s – contained in its report last year to the National Economic Development Office; according to the Financial Times, McKinsey will work with Plessey, advising on general corporate strategy and on aspects of its defence against GEC Siemens – it believes GEC is going about its restructuring in the wrong way.
