werdies wrote on Dec 20
th, 2007 at 10:04pm:
Agreement hasn't been reached, but it's 99.9% there, the details are just being ironed out, and the company will cease to exist I would estimate late Jan.
Agreement with whom? The syndicate of lending banks, or the company to which you alluded?
werdies wrote on Nov 28
th, 2007 at 10:54pm:
Some well known companies are expressing discreet interest in picking it up for a song - one is quite topical and I'm sure you can guess it
werdies wrote on Dec 2
nd, 2007 at 2:26pm:
... a company with an existing business will run them at break-even or a small loss, to cross-promote it's other products. It will be a strong, trusted brand.
This seems a bit unlikely because that brand only gets involved in launching or buying out fashionable lifestyle companies with a likelyhood of large profit margins. And I don't believe they're sufficiently niaive to think that hospital patients are a good advertising target with a high proportion of the demographics they would be looking for to cross-promote that part of group's business.
I would find it much more credible if it was intended to be run as a philanthropic venture - perhaps a company limited by guarantee - with the branding around the personality rather than the group, but with the advantage that all of the required services can be sourced from one of the companies within the group. There is of course a precedent for a philanthropic take-over by this party, albeit that the previous bid was unsuccessful.
And it would be an ironic brand name in obstetrics wards!