Brit_in_Japan

Celltech seem to be the latest of a very long line of British companies which have been bought by companies overseas. Why are the directors of the British companies so keen to sell the companies to overseas competitors ? We all know what will happen in the medium to long term, the new owners will move production and research overseas and protect jobs "at home".

That's recently what happened in York with the announcement of the closure of the Terry's factory by Nestle, bringing to an end 170 years of chocolate manufacture by that company. There are hundreds of other examples too. At least companies like Dyson have actually kept high value engineering & design jobs in the UK, even if manufacturing has largely been exported. If Dyson was not British owned, those jobs would have gone too.

Company directors and shareholders (the City) seem to be so fixated on short term gains that they have forgotten the long term impact on the people and economy of this country.

Suresh

B_i_J : Totally agree with you mate. Can't believe that we are not more protectionist.

I found it unbelieveable when the Government of the time allowed Nestlé to swallow up Rowntree Macintosh, especially when a reverse situation would have been obstructed by Swiss takeover law.

It makes no sense to play fair when almost nobody else does....

CrisPDuk

This is what happens when you allow accountants & econonmists to attain positions of power & influence The only thing they see is the number at the bottom of the sheet

what would scooby do

Welcome to the capitalist world mate .. you could try communism if you wish

Dracoro

With all due respect, if a British company had made an equally good offer, I'm sure that would have been taken. As it happens, a non UK company made the best offer so they bought it. Yes, it's unfortunate but it's the way of the world. Is it really much different from, say, a Newcastle company buying a Birmingham company and moving all the jobs up from brum to tyneside? The Birmingham economy suffers and the Newcastle one gains. Birmingham then has to become more competitive to keep business/trade local else it will lose more trade.

Put it this way, if you were selling your car and Pierre from France came over and offered you more money than Bob from London, you'd take it yes?

Yes manufacturing has gone down in recent times but on the other hand the service industry has gone up. Due to this, the overall economy of the UK hasn't really suffered much, if anything, the opposite.

scoobymoo

I actually work for Celltech and whilst I am disappointed we will no longer be a british firm something like this was inevitable. I am just glad we have been bought by a company who bought us for our R&D and not just our top drug CDP870, there are plenty of companies out their who would have bought us just to get CDP870 and sacked the lot of us. The new company will in fact have its R&D headquarters here in Slough and we have been told that their will be little or no job losses amongst the scientific staff. Another little bonus is that we will be getting our share options paid out so I am trying to decide whether I want a type 25, spec C or WR1.

icantthinkofone

Two words: Global Economy.

Isn't it about time we started realising that we move about countries more easily than we used to cities, and get this rather out of date concept of nationalism buried and done with

(time for my flamesuit I rather suspect..)