Perhaps I am misunderstanding the concept of the franchise deals.
BA have no authority to buy a franchise partner such as Logan Air, Sun Air, GB and BMED. The franchisee uses the livery and BA as a ticketing agent but are separately/privately/publicly owned companies. They are not contracted to fly routes on behalf of BA. So any 'takeover' would be conditional on those franchise partners accepting such a proposition.
Is this not correct?