France 1; West Germany nil. (Bernard Tapie's takeover of Adidas)

Economist (US), The, July, 1990

IF IT was a Gallic plot to take the Teutons down a peg, it could not have been better timed. As West Germans went wild over their World Cup win on july 8th, word spread that the French were taking control of Adidas, a West German sports-goods empire. And France did not even get beyond the World Cup's qualifying stages.

This is not the first time foreigners have muscled in on a famous German sports firm. Sweden's Aritmos recently snapped up Puma, a smaller local rival of Adidas. Even so the coup by Mr Bernard Tapie, a French socialist politician and businessman (see page 48) who is taking an 80% stake in Adidas for Dm700m ($425m), is something special.

Adidas has for decades been touted as a prime example of a special German strength-the canny,...

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