“Once you decide to work for yourself, you never go back to work for somebody else,” Sir Alan Sugar reputedly said.
Along with, “I don’t think too many people would want my job. I’m a bit of a nutter” and “there’s only room for one bigmouth in my organisation, and that’s me.”
They’re the type of responses that all interviewers dream of – so all in all, this is an interesting day’s hiring for BSkyB.
The group said on Tuesday that its Sky Digital Supplies subsidiary had agreed an all-cash deal with Amstrad, pitched at 150p a share – 23.7 per cent above Monday’s closing price – and valuing Sir Alan’s baby at about £125m. Amstrad shares jumped 20 per cent on Tuesday.
There is also a loan note alternative for Amstrad shareholders, a type of IOU from Sky which enables investors to spread their capital gains tax liability over several years. Which could be handy for Sir Alan who, as the largest shareholder, stands to take just shy of £35m from the deal.
Directors of Amstrad including Sir Alan, his son Simon and Martin Bland, the finance director, who together hold almost 28 per cent of the company, have agreed to accept the offer. Of that the vast majority, more than 27 per cent according to Reuters, is held by Sir Alan himself through one of his companies, Amshold. In addition, Sky has had acceptances from other shareholders taking the total already in support to 44.8 per cent.
Amstrad supplied around a third of the set-top boxes purchased by Sky in the last financial year – and, the company said on Tuesday, that business accounted for about 75 per cent of Amstrad’s revenue. Bringing Amstrad in-house will provide Sky with design and development capabilities and will reduce its costs in sourcing set-top boxes.
But what, we wonder, will Sir Alan actually being doing in the $12bn media empire led by James Murdoch, hier presumptive to his father Rupert? Sir Alan hailed Sky as a “great British success story,” in Tuesday’s statement, and said he looked forward to “continuing to play a part in this exciting business.”
What part that would be was a little unclear.
The answer seems to be that nothing in the foreseeable future would change in the day-to-day running of Amstrad – with Sir Alan still calling the shots as chief executive and chairman. There seemed some confusion as to whether Sir Alan’s title would remain the same following the deal, when Amstrad will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Sky, or whether that had yet to be confirmed.
For fans, the future of the Apprentice is, we are told, unaffected by the deal – with auditions for series four underway. Although the writers at the Beeb had better start crafting a new puff-tastic biog for Sir Alan for the opening sequence.