Originally Posted by
Sunfish
Many many years ago in Australia, the Bond Corporation (run by Alan Bond) made a takeover bid for Tiny Rowlands Lonhro Corporation in London.
Lonhros defence was to get some good forensic accountants to have a good look at the Bond Corporation. What they found was not encouraging, they briefed market analysts and suchlike on the results.
The bid collapsed.
Then Bond bid for the Bell Group, whose founder had just died of a heart attack. Bell was cashed up to the tune of a billion dollars, Bond was successful in gaining control of the company and the cash disappeared.
Bond and some of his fellow Directors spent some time as guests of Her Majesty as a result. It's not the first time that a weak or over extended company tried to buy a fatter competitor to devour.
Does this apply to Ryanair? I don't know.
What on earth has that got to do with this bid? Bond's actions were to support an ailing business empire, with massive debts to its name. Ryanair is a successful and highly profitable publically-owned company. Morals and ethics of employees' treatment aside, there is little to compare between the two.
Here is an example of another ridiculous insinuation:
Robert Maxwell stole millions from the company pension scheme, therefore as Ryanair has a pension scheme, Mr O'Leary might be a crook.
See how ridiculous that sounds?