[off topic] news/rumor

["Ian" <e@sbbs.se>]

Hot on the heels of the Volvo sell out:

Bidders circle around BMW
By Michael Harrison, Business Editor 'The Independent'
Shares in BMW soared by nearly 10 per cent yesterday as speculation grew
that the German car firm might be the subject of a £20bn takeover bid.

Among the companies rumoured to be interested in bidding for BMW are General
Motors, Ford, Toyota and Fiat.

The surge in the shares followed last Friday's removal of the BMW chairman,
Bernd Pischetsrieder, because of his failure to stem mounting losses at its
Rover subsidiary.

Mr Pischetsrider's departure has placed a question mark over the Longbridge
car plant in Birmingham which could close unless it is chosen as the site
for a new medium-sized car to replace the Rover 200/400 series.

Tony Blair raised the future of Longbridge with the German Chancellor,
Gerhard Schroder, at yesterday's funeral of King Hussein of Jordan.

Stephen Byers, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, visited the
Longbridge plant and met management and union officials. He later
acknowledged the uncertainty over the future and said: "The Government is in
close contact with BMW and we shall continue to do all we can to represent
the interests of Rover and, in particular, Longbridge."

Analysts believe the new BMW chairman, Professor Joachim Milberg, will want
to move quickly to decide strategy over Rover. The board meets today and is
thought to have set itself a two-week deadline to reach decisions.

BMW is controlled by the Quandt family, who own 46 per cent of the shares
and have rejected previous approaches.

"BMW is a very attractive proposition," said John Lawson, motor industry
analyst with the investment bank Salomon Smith Barney. "But the Quandts have
made it professionally impossible to read their intentions. There's no
doubt, however, that anybody knocking on their door needs to be seriously
cash rich."

Analysts believe that the boardroom upheaval at BMW may have tested the
patience of the Quandt family and left the company more vulnerable to a
takeover bid. But Otto Wiesheu, the Bavarian economics minister, dismissed
the speculation as being "for the birds".
<end of article>
Now wouldn't it be something if VW ended up buying BMW so they could get all
of Rolls Royce? Stranger things have happened!


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