Entries from January 2010 ↓

This  seems rather pathetic in light of the announcment today:

As you may have seen, this morning our Board recommended shareholders accept a significantly improved offer from Kraft of 840p a share plus a 10p special dividend.  

This decision was not taken lightly, but in the end the Board has a clear legal duty to secure value for shareholders, many of whom indicated that this was a level of value that they would be prepared to accept. 

The improved offer represents a premium of some 50% on our pre-bid share price (September ’09) and 13% premium above Kraft’s last offer

Kraft’s offer deadline for shareholder acceptances remains 2 February. If it succeeds Cadbury plc will become part of Kraft Foods on that date.

I can’t pretend that I don’t feel an immense personal sadness that Cadbury will no longer be a standalone confectionery company. But I also know that through this process Kraft – and the market – has seen the value of our iconic brands, our unique culture and our outstanding people, which is where the power and value of Cadbury lies. This will not change. We fought a great fight, and whilst we didn’t win independence, we did prove once and for all that we are a world class business.

We’re now focused on ensuring any transition retains the unique qualities of Cadbury, including maintaining the momentum behind our Cadbury Cocoa Partnership and Fairtrade certification.

Through this difficult time we’ve been heartened by the support we have received from people all over the world, and would like to thank everyone for their efforts.

Monday 25th January, Grand Committee Room, Westminster Hall, 6.30-8.00pm

How should we think about the world’s fastest-growing and most lucrative entertainment medium?

I am chairing a discussion on the place of video games and virtual worlds in modern society – the lessons we might learn from them, their dangers, and why the public debate needs to move beyond breathless accusations about violent, screen-addicted young people. Joining me for the discussion will be:

Tom Chatfield, senior editor at Prospect magazine, and author of Fun Inc, a major new book on the social importance of video games, published by Virgin Books on 14th January.

Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz Games, one of Britain’s largest independent games developers, and one of its most radical in pursuing the serious and innovative uses of games. With his brother, Philip is one of the founding fathers of the British games industry.

Sam Leith is a cultural critic and author, and columnist for The Guardian, The Evening Standard and Prospect. A previous books editor at the Daily Telegraph, he has a particular interest in popular culture and emerging technologies, and writes regularly on video games.

If you would like to attend the event, please let Claire Pilsbury know in my London office on 020 7219 8335 or by emailing pilsburyc@parliament.uk

I hope to see you on Monday 25th January in the Grand Committee Room from 6.30pm for what promises to be a lively discussion.

Google’s announcement that they were hacked in December, reminds us how bad people can do nasty things with new digital tools. I recently had the pleasure of sharing a platform with Evgeny Morozov, who has been warning us how totalitarians can use the Internet to watch us on the web for some time. Evgeny made a strong case for technology companies showing a lead in human rights. He was also critical of liberal minded Western geeks wearing rose tinted glasses when peering into the future of the Internet. Here’s an extract from his recent article in Prospect:

“So how do repressive governments use the internet? As we have seen, the security services can turn technology against the logistics of protest. But the advent of blogging and social networking has also made it easier for the state to plant and promote its own messages, spinning and neutralising online discussions before they translate into offline action. The “great firewall of China,” which supposedly keeps the Chinese in the dark, is legendary.”

Google’s discovery that the attack was an attempt to hack the Gmail accounts of known Chinese dissidents will shock many. It’s clearly had a deep impact on the bosses of the company. They’re ending their much derided policy of censoring search results in China. We should all applaud them for this brave corporate move.

And we should also use their lead to put pressure on other technology companies to stop all this nonsense once and for all. Apple should go next. They should refuse to censor the Dalai Lama applications from their App store.

I’m tabling an Early Day Motion in the Commons on this issue. Here’s the draft:

This House notes with concern Google’s announcement that their corporate infrastructure was attacked from sources originating in China and that the primary reason for the attempted hack was to target private email accounts of human rights activists; congratulates Google on the decision to end their policy of censoring search results in China; believes that other technology companies should follow Google’s lead by refusing to collaborate with demands to censor their activities.