Word: mittal
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Dollé, 63, is chief executive of Luxembourg-based Arcelor, Europe's biggest steel company, measured by revenue, which was formed in 2002 out of what was left of the French, Belgian, Luxembourgian and Spanish steel industries. Mittal, 55, is the Indian-born chairman of the world's biggest producer of steel, Mittal Steel, which he built up over the past decade with a slew of acquisitions, in the process making a fortune for himself estimated at $25 billion. The two men have known each other for years and, as board members of the steelmakers' international trade group, meet regularly...
...might as well have dunked a croissant in hot vindaloo curry sauce. In much of Europe, Mittal's move was viewed as a rough attempt by "new" India to take on "old" Europe. France's Finance Minister Thierry Breton accused Mittal of having "a grammar problem" and the Prime Minister of Luxembourg, Jean-Claude Juncker, declared: "This hostile bid by Mittal Steel calls for a reaction that is at least as hostile." Dollé worked hard to encourage public opposition, dismissing Mittal as a low-grade operator specializing "in buying up obsolete installations at low cost." Mittal himself insists that...
...says he gave a noncommittal reply, and the two moved on to dinner and other business, leaving discussion about a possible merger open. "I said neither yes nor no," he recalled last week. "I just said 75% to 80% of mergers fail because of cultural differences." For his part, Mittal says Dollé immediately ruled out a deal. "He gave several reasons why he wasn't interested," he told Time. "I told him I'd get in touch again, and called a few days later to say there was an urgent need to meet." The men never did re-establish...
While the rhetoric bounced from side to side, Mittal's onslaught gave many Europeans a high-profile reason to reflect on how globalization is transforming the way their economies work and shifting the balance of power not just from West to East and rich to once-poor, but from government regulation to private-sector free enterprise. "The state's ability to prevent this takeover is extremely limited," conceded Patrick Ollier, president of the French parliament's economic affairs committee...
...this new world, location is less important than cost efficiency, and highly mobile investors and entrepreneurs such as Mittal - an Indian national, based in London, with a company headquartered in the Netherlands - are making the rules. Even in Paris, amid the official fury and calls for the deal to be blocked, some acknowledged that the tide of history is turning against the old habit of looking at business in purely national or European terms. "I understand the astonishment and emotion" the bid caused, said Luc Chatel, a lawmaker from President Jacques Chirac's ump party. But he pointed out that...