The March issue of Financial Director was already in the post when word came that the £100bn-plus merger between Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham was being abandoned - which made our Insight article on the two FDs leading the deal, John Coombe and Hugh Collum, look somewhat pointless.
Still, the “most revealing quotes” that we selected from their profiles back in 1995 and 1993, respectively, proved to be even more revealing than we’d anticipated. We’d noted that Coombe had said “To do this job in one of the world’s best companies has always been my key ambition” – ironic, given that the Glaxo men wanted all the top jobs in the merged group. Collum, meanwhile, was found to have said “Mergers have never been easy, and people have always regarded them with suspicion”. Truer words, gentlemen …
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