. . . Arnold high and dry
THE COUNTER-BIDDER for VSEL has cash and to spare — the most celebrated hoard in British business. This is, of course, Lord Weinstock, Arnold to some, and man- aging director of the General Electric Com- pany for the last 31 years. His career bears out the old rule that the winning poker- player has the deepest pockets.
How cheerfully he seems to grin, How neatly spreads his claws, And welcomes little fishes in With gently smiling jaws!
Into them have swum GEC itself — a reverse takeover by his family company and then Associated Electrical Industries, English Electric, Plessey and Ferranti. In the bidding for Decca he was content to run his rival, Racal, up to a crippling price, and this may now be his game again. If an overstretched B Ae found that it had exhausted its shareholders' patience or their wallets, then those saurian jaws of his would open wide once more.
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