On mergers

There has been a lot on the news, in Portugal and elsewhere, on mergers, buy-offs, takeovers, etc. I had all these terms explained to me on Wed evening, but after only 4 hours sleep on the previous night and a stressful journey to London, I'm afraid I didn't memorize all the definitions (sorry, Roy). But I just found out the awful news yesterday: Body Shop has been bought off by L'Oreal! Despite assurances that The Body Shop is going to be run independently, this is nothing short of a calamity. No more guilt-free buying of beauty products - I remind you that L'Oreal was one of the main animal testers before the law forbidding animal tests for cosmetics was passed and that it has very brazen and vulgar PR tactics (I have mentioned elsewhere the L'Oreal Women in Science prize). I have bought one or two of the new L'Oreal products, but it is nothing compared with the warm glow when I buy Body Shop, knowing the products are ethically sourced, tested, actually work and smell nice as well.