The idea that this country benefits by allowing the best of UK plc to be creamed off by overseas buyers, or become their mere subsidiaries, is absurd.
Actually, it’s very nationalistic. Not really sure why, either.
Meanwhile, the sale of chip designer Arm – arguably the most successful technology company Britain has ever produced – in 2016 to Japan’s SoftBank must rank as one of the greatest acts of self-harm ever committed.
But the shareholders of ARM – who are the owners of it – made out like bandits. Why isn’t this a good idea?
Poor laddie has this idea that companies belong to the nation in some way. Rather than, you know, the shareholders?
Rightmove saw more growth in the share price because of Rupert Murdoch wanting to buy it than it has in 5 years. Because it was basically done by then. It hit the boring stage.
And it’s ripe for disruption. A database of houses for sale or rent, a search facility. With the current cloud tech, you could do the code for that in about a month. Two months if you want things like a way to save houses you like, and to get notified. You could run it for £10/house/month. Or just make money by selling add-on services like a priority listing or a photographer comes out and takes some better photos.
Marlow is one of the thickest hacks on the Terriblegraph, and that is saying something.
Well…
There are such things as nation-states that compete with each other and therefore have strategic national interests, which is why they have militaries. When they start competing percussively (or even indulging in a bit of good old-fashioned mercantilism) the first thing to take the hit is competitive advantage.
So, if as a result of your own or someone else’s aggression you’re cut of from a source of stuff you need, even if that stuff was better or cheaper than you could make yourself, what are you going to do? And how do you define what you need to preserve beyond the usual market functionality, in order to maintain supply of this strategically necessary stuff?
Here’s an example. The Russians have always made airliners but they’ve always been a bit shite economically, which is why as soon as the USSR collapsed, Russian airlines immediately started re-equipping with Western types. Since then, Russian manufacturers have started using a lot of Western kit in their new designs, particularly engines and avionics. Even so, the new planes don’t sell well.
Now, thanks to sanctions, it’s difficult to get parts for the Western kit they fly and impossible to replace them. So, the Russkies have started a programme of “Russification”, replacing Western bits in their airliners with their own gear, so that they can become self-sufficient in airliners.
Is this a good or a bad thing?
Norman:
“So, the Russkies have started a programme of “Russification”, replacing Western bits in their airliners with their own gear, so that they can become self-sufficient in airliners.”
Certainly it helps them keep their airplanes in the air.
If at some point in the future the sanctions get removed and they are able to sell those Russian bits, then possibly we all benefit from having different ways to solve problems.
It’s rather like the situation with SpaceX. It’s great that we have a cheap way to launch stuff; it would be much better if we had more than one company who could do it. Not just for fear of monopoly but also because it’s quite possible that SpaceX hasn’t found the best way to do any given thing as they only have so many people working on it.
– Certainly it helps them keep their airplanes in the air.
I doubt it. It’s highly unlikely that Russian industry is going to develop the capacity to reverse engineer and manufacture specialist airliner parts any time soon, particularly as that part of their technical base will be highly engaged in the war effort. Far more likely is that the “Russification programme” is a cover for the importation of western parts via third countries.
SpaceX may not be doing it the ‘best’ way but they are far better at it than Boeing & ULA, and other potential rivals like Bezos are still suffering all the teething problems with their own projects. Then you get chancers like Beardy Branson, who, after only a couple of failures, threw in the towel.
Norman,
It’s a reasonable point if you’re talking about military aircraft, but estate agency doesn’t apply. Nor does mobile phone chips or a chain of luxury chocolate shops.
But people have this weird idea of “selling off the family silver” when a) the state doesn’t own it and b) silverware costs more and sucks compared to stainless steel. There would have been a particular moment in time where it was better to have the money than the silk worm farm, stables or pub. Let some mug who thinks nylon is a fad lose their money.
Didn’t PurpleBricks try and disrupt Rightmove?
We need to know what happened to the money the Japs paid before we can make any financial, strategic or even moral judgement. For all we know it might have gone in to bunch of startups that have even more potential.
Allthegoodnamesaretaken said:
“Didn’t PurpleBricks try and disrupt Rightmove?”
No, Purple Bricks tried to use Rightmove to disrupt estate agents.
As an individual seller, you can’t list on Rightmove; they only accept listings via an estate agent (it was originally set up by a consortium of big estate agents), so you still have to pay their high fees.
The idea for Purple Bricks was that they would be an online-only estate agent, effectively giving sellers a cheaper way of getting their house onto Rightmove.
No, actually, we don’t. All we need to know is that the Japs paid enough that the previous owners were willing to accept their offer – it doesn’t matter if they funded SpaceX or spent it on hookers and blow; they got somehting they valued more than the future dividend stream plus liquidation payout from arm. If it was important to the government that the company not be owned by a foreign entity, then they could’ve gotten their wallet out (by which, I mean your wallet) and bettered the offer. They didn’t: that’s a revealed preference – while they might jabber about the national interest, they won’t act to further it.
I honestly don’t see where morality enters into it.