Five years ago: Mystery over Psion/Amstrad merger collapse

The £234 million UK mega-merger was called off Friday about 3pm after a month of discussion when Psion chiefs said they had decided not to go ahead. Both parties said they didn't expect the deal to be resuscitated. Amstrad was surprised by the collapse, saying it hadn't expected any last-minute hitches.

Amstrad's official announcement stated that "it was not possible to reach agreement on the price at which such an offer should be made. The Board of Amstrad is not aware of anything that has come to Psion's attention as a result of Psion's due diligence investigations that should concern Amstrad's shareholders."

Amstrad chief Alan Sugar was reported in The Times on Saturday that Psion had got "cold feet" over the deal. A Psion spokeman denied that was the case, saying: "Psion is not really talking about why or what. Having got all the information, we decided the deal wasn't in the best interests of our shareholders. It wasn't a matter of 'cold feet'; cold feet is the wrong implication to draw."

A spokeswoman at Viglen, the direct sales PC operation, owned by Amstrad, said that it was "business as usual" and claimed there had been no disturbance to sales while sale negotiations were going on.