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28 November, 1999IG Metall rejects Vodafone's hostile takeover bid of the German industrial giant Mannesmann.
GERMANY: On November 28, the 20-member supervisory board of the German telecommunications and engineering firm, Mannesmann AG, unanimously rejected the hostile takeover bid by the British mobile phone company Vodafone AirTouch PLC. Mannesmann is Germany's largest mobile phone company, and Vodafone is the world's largest wireless service provider. Vodafone's hostile bid for Mannesmann, which would be the largest corporate takeover ever, will be put before Mannesmann shareholders next month.
In a press release issued earlier last week by the IMF-affiliated German metalworkers' union, IG Metall, the union's president, Klaus Zwickel, who is also vice-president of Mannesmann's supervisory board, said he rejected the unfriendly takeover and breakup of Mannesmann and declared that "we want this attempt to fail." Vodafone is being criticised by the trade union for only being interested in the mobile phone business of Mannesmann so that they can "throw a bothersome competitor out of the market."
According to the IG Metall president, Mannesmann's concept is remarkably more attractive for clients, workers and shareholders as it is not just oriented on wireless communications but at a European-wide integration of fixed line, mobile phone and Internet operations. He said "this strategy will prove itself on the market and offers at the same time the safest value addition to the stock market." Production sites and 130,000 jobs would be safeguarded.
Zwickel has asked the federal government to take political initiatives so that successful companies which have been marked by the co-determination system cannot be destroyed through hostile takeovers. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has said that the unfriendly bid for Mannesmann by Vodafone is not in line with either the spirit of the European Union or the ideas expressed by socialists at the recent Socialist International Congress.
The American AFL-CIO, in a related statement issued by its president, John Sweeney, has said that they were also opposing Vodafone's hostile bid for Mannesmann. AFL-CIO members, through their retirement funds, are major investors in both companies, and control 13 per cent of Mannesmann's shares. The AFL-CIO, said Sweeney, "believes value is created over the long-term by partnerships among all a corporation's constituents -- workers, investors, customers, suppliers and communities. Mannesmann, and the European model of corporate governance under which it is structured, has allowed just those kinds of value-creating partnerships to flourish."
In a press release issued earlier last week by the IMF-affiliated German metalworkers' union, IG Metall, the union's president, Klaus Zwickel, who is also vice-president of Mannesmann's supervisory board, said he rejected the unfriendly takeover and breakup of Mannesmann and declared that "we want this attempt to fail." Vodafone is being criticised by the trade union for only being interested in the mobile phone business of Mannesmann so that they can "throw a bothersome competitor out of the market."
According to the IG Metall president, Mannesmann's concept is remarkably more attractive for clients, workers and shareholders as it is not just oriented on wireless communications but at a European-wide integration of fixed line, mobile phone and Internet operations. He said "this strategy will prove itself on the market and offers at the same time the safest value addition to the stock market." Production sites and 130,000 jobs would be safeguarded.
Zwickel has asked the federal government to take political initiatives so that successful companies which have been marked by the co-determination system cannot be destroyed through hostile takeovers. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has said that the unfriendly bid for Mannesmann by Vodafone is not in line with either the spirit of the European Union or the ideas expressed by socialists at the recent Socialist International Congress.
The American AFL-CIO, in a related statement issued by its president, John Sweeney, has said that they were also opposing Vodafone's hostile bid for Mannesmann. AFL-CIO members, through their retirement funds, are major investors in both companies, and control 13 per cent of Mannesmann's shares. The AFL-CIO, said Sweeney, "believes value is created over the long-term by partnerships among all a corporation's constituents -- workers, investors, customers, suppliers and communities. Mannesmann, and the European model of corporate governance under which it is structured, has allowed just those kinds of value-creating partnerships to flourish."