After announcing on 26 February that it was in the process of negotiating the purchase of Swiss press manufacturer WIFAG, on 12 April manroland AG announced that the two companies agreed to call off negotiations. “It was not possible to harmonise the interests of both parties. However, manroland and WIFAG remain open for cooperation on a technical level,” said the press release from manroland. “WIFAG announced their financial problems already last year after IFRA Expo,” said Manfred Werfel, executive director of Newspaper Production, WAN-IFRA. “There was much speculation about who would become this partner. … Concerns were that the newspaper press supplier would be taken over by an investor from outside the industry which would not be interested in the technology and the newspaper market.” With negotiations called off, that outside possibility remains a reality.
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