All the cynical promises of synergy and collaboration with which GEC Plc and Siemens AG successfully argued their case for being allowed to take over Plessey Co Plc have boiled down to only the continuing joint ownership of GEC Plessey Telecommunications Ltd, where Siemens was never going to be content to be the minority 40% partner indefinitely: now the Mail on Sunday reveals that Siemens has been trying to persuade GEC to sell out its 60% holding, making three offers of between UKP700m and UKP800m, with Lord Weinstock rejecting the offer each time; he is thought to want over UKP1,000m, which is reckoned to be significantly over the odds, and Siemens is not the kind of company to pay too much for something it wants, so the impasse is likely to continue until the climate is altered by outside circumstances, such as GEC spotting an irresistible opportunity for which it needs cash, or a further shift in the world environment for telecommunications equipment manufacturers.
