It's all about acquisitions this week. In this newsletter, we report on Daifuku's purchase of Jervis B Webb of Michigan. Then there's Ballard Power Systems which is selling its automotive fuel cell assets to Daimler and Ford. And then there's the one that got away: United Rentals is suing Cerberus Capital Management over the collapse of a merger deal. As we predicted earlier in the year, consolidation is here to stay and those companies that aren't leaders in their sector should be looking over their shoulders to see who's stalking them.
And speaking of strength, a quick apology for the over-generous exchange rate on the Euro in last week's report on Linde UK's financial results. The USD equivalent of Linde's EUR4 billion purchase price was inflated because we had converted pounds rather than Euros. If you went to the bank expecting USD 8.26 billion for that amount and felt short-changed when you only got 5.94 billion, we're sorry for your disappointment. But don't expect us to make up the shortfall!