And Springer’s next acquisition will not be the last in the near future. Siemens, meanwhile, has acquired large parts of Westinghouse in the US and NEI Parsons in the UK, reinforcing its position as one of the world’s biggest power station suppliers.Two of Britain’s oldest merchant banks – Morgan Grenfell and Kleinwort Benson – are now under the respective ownership of Deutsche Bank and Dresdner Bank.A British executive who has worked extensively in Germany says that the big change in corporate outlook took place about four years ago. Hence the natural urge to take these cash mountains abroad by buying into bigger markets.Volkswagen, already Europe’s largest car maker, will still have plenty of short change left over if it buys Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. Daimler Benz has been plotting expansion plans for at least three years, and will carry on growing even when the merger with Chrysler is completed.Bertelsmann, the publishing giant, remains in predatory mood after swallowing up the US publisher Random House. So far it has devoted most of its energies expanding into English-speaking markets, snapping up investment banks, publishing companies and car makers in Britain and the US. In part this is a response to the increased competition that Deutschland AG is experiencing through world trade liberalisation and the EU-inspired breakdown of national monopolies.The old friendly ways – fixing markets, prices, wages and just about everything else with the help of a bank which happens to own a large slice of the company – are breaking down.Through this cosy system, many German corporations have accumulated vast wealth which can no longer be spent at home.
German companies have been merging with each other, swapping shares and spinning complex webs of cross-ownership for decades. What is new is that they are at last broadening their horizons, fanning out from their own protected – and so far highly profitable – market into the rest of the world.
Corporate Germany was slow to wake up to the challenges of globalisation, but has been making up for lost time ever since. The relentless march of German capital into the boardrooms of the world has failed to excite the German public because it smacks of desertion rather than conquest. I am 27 years ago and I shall spend the rest of my life here And I want to see peace.”. SPRINGER’S flagship Sunday paper, Welt am Sonntag, devoted two paragraphs yesterday to its latest Spanish acquisition and the possible takeover of the Mirror Group Other papers cared even less. Clare Dorman, 27, a teacher voted yes along with her husband James 28 She is a Catholic, he is a Protestant. Ms Dorman who is pregnant said: “Of course I am thinking of my child’s future, but I’m also voting for myself.
Look for example at tourism in the south, at the moment we are not getting any of that.”The Yes campaign picked up a large proportion of women’s votes. The couple both Protestants from Carrigfergus, voted yes.The couple, who have a daughter Kathryn, 12, and Allan, 11, feel peace is essential for their future. Mr Nixon, who works at a Mercedes Benz dealers, said: “We are missing out on so much because of the troubles. The concert at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall where the singer Bono, of U2, appeared with David Trimble and John Hume was a resounding success.After that Mr Paisley and the “No” campaigners began to look more and more outdated and negative. Jo and Des Nixon, 36 and 41, said there was simply no alternative, “we can’t go through more of the same”. Colin Huston, 33, whose father had served a prison term for offences connected with the loyalist Ulster Defence Association seemed to sum up the feeling of many when he said: “Mr Paisley has had his day, he can’t keep scaring us.”Yesterday in the first morning after victory the mood in the streets was optimism tinged with caution. A visit by Tony Blair and William Hague last Wednesday was generally well received and on Thursday along the sunlit Protestant Shankill Road and the nationalist Falls Road the mood was optimistic and bullish People refuse to be afraid any longer.
