An awfully big venture

Article Abstract:

Digital metal detector maker Safeline was founded when the senior managers of AM Lock failed to stage a management buyout. The UK-based AM Lock produces digital detectors and is part of the Grosvenor Group which was acquired by Robert Maxwell in 1987. He began to asset-strip the other companies within the group and was about to start with AM Lock. Management decided to offer Maxwell 17 million pounds sterling for the firm, but this offer was rejected because the asking price was 25 million pounds. Lacking the funds, AM Lock technical director Ivan Beswick, the US operations' president Andrew Lock, and acquisitions expert Peter Davis went to venture capitalist 3i for funding to set up a new digital detector company. Maxwell sued Safeline for stealing proprietary information from AM Lock, but the latter won the case. Despite its financial and legal troubles, the new firm was able to produce its first machine only two months behind schedule.

Measuring & controlling devices, not elsewhere classified, Other Measuring and Controlling Device Manufacturing, Metal Detectors, Case studies, Finance, Venture capital, Company Profile, New business enterprises, Startups, Control equipment industry, Safeline

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Stranglehold

Article Abstract:

The article discusses about the 2007 survey finds that nearly one in five companies in the Financial Times and the London Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 are audited by their financial directors' old firms, revealing the Big Four's increasing dominance over training and large company audits.

Surveys, Auditors, Financial accounting, Survey

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