P. M. BRIEFING : Britain Reluctantly OKs Takeover
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LONDON — Britain’s monopolies monitoring commission gave its conditional approval today to a hostile joint takeover bid for the electronics group Plessey by General Electric Co. of Britain and Siemens AG of West Germany.
The Anglo-German bid, announced last November, would create one of Europe’s biggest electronics groups, capable of competing with the industry’s giants in North America and Japan.
Plessey Co. PLC fought hard against the unwanted $2.9-billion bid, launching several unsuccessful court attempts to remain independent.
The Monopolies and Mergers Commission approved the bid “provided appropriate undertakings are given . . . to deal with aspects of the merger which might otherwise be expected to operate against the public interest.” Plessey and GEC are both major defense contractors in Britain and the Ministry of Defense was earlier reported to have raised objections to the bid.
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