LEGAL THEFT (23 july 2004)
Suppose you are the owner of a shop, which you have made into a great success. This shop generates yearly profits of millions of euros.
Of course, you get older and you wonder if you should never stop working.
But one day, somebody comes up and offers to buy your shop.
Well, you've worked for it and made it into a success. So why not sell it?
But what if a company isn't your property?
If you're a manager employed to promote the interests of a company and its shareholders. And suppose a takeover is not in the company's interest? What should you do in that case?
Of course, I hear you say: you should fend off the takeover.
Well, madam, I admire your honesty. But I'm afraid that's not how it works in this wicked world of ours.
The other day, I heard that Vodafone wanted to take over Mannesmann. But the takeover was not in Mannesmann's advantage.
So what did the smart people at Vodafone do? They made the prospect of a takeover very attractive for the managers high up at Mannesmann's.
The takeover would make these managers many millions of euros richer.
So what happened?
Yes madam, you guessed right: Mannesmnann was sold off. And a few highly placed people earned a lot of euros.
Is this legal, you may wonder ...
The managers seem to have been acquitted by a Court of Law.
I saw the managers on television, happily surprised that they had managed to steal an almost indecent sum of money and still could not be convicted of theft.
