Free Sir Alan Sugar by Charlie Burden

become the driving force of the UK micro scene.’
    Sinclair was as posh and geeky as Sugar was brash and outspoken, but the struggling inventor liked his opposite number. ‘I found Alan Sugar a delightful man to deal with,’ he said. ‘He tended to say this is the deal. He never tried to improve his position or deviate from what he said he would do. He was very straightforward and clearheaded . He was very pleasant company, enjoyable to meet – a witty man.’
    However, the amount of money that Sinclair expected to receive in the deal was far more than Sugar envisaged. He left the meeting convinced that the deal would never go ahead.
    But Sinclair was keen to close a deal and so, at Eastertime, the prospect of a deal appeared to be back on. At a meeting in the City, Sugar offered £ 5 million for the operation and was prepared to part with £ 11 million for the stock inventory. He was about to go on holiday – his ticket for the Concorde flight to Florida was in hisbriefcase – so Sugar summed up in particularly concise style. ‘That’s the deal I’m offering, but I haven’t much time. So if you’re interested, fine. If not, it’s nice to have met you and I’ll say goodbye.’
    Those representing Sinclair attempted to negotiate a higher figure from Sugar. At one point they even asked him to leave the room, and then asked him to increase his basic offer to £ 10 million. Sugar refused, and Sinclair backed down to accept the original offer. Sugar left the meeting, dashed to the airport and settled into his seat on Concorde. It must have felt good.
    Over the next week, the final details were thrashed out and, at times, it looked as if the deal might stall after all. Sugar was tough and steadfast throughout, and reflected afterwards that the Sinclair people thought they were dealing with ‘a boy who had just got bar-mitzvahed … someone with too much money and didn’t know what I was doing.’
    However, Sugar got his way and the deal was sealed. He returned to England and just 48 hours later was at the joint press conference to announce the deal. He remembers that the assembled press encouraged him to goad Sinclair about the deal. But, ever the gentleman, Sugar resisted the bait. ‘The deal is good for both of us,’ Sugar told the hacks. ‘Sinclair is good at research and this gives them money to press on with it. We are good at marketing and this gives us another wonderful product to sell.’
    Clive Sinclair echoed the sentiment that each side of the deal would play to its strengths. ‘We pioneered the market. Now we’ve handed it over to the people who are experts in international marketing. It gets us out of a business we were not doing very well in, and allows us to continue in interests we do well in. We chose the Amstrad deal because it was a better deal. We sold off the traditional business.’
    The Amstrad press release announcing the deal read: ‘Amstrad Consumer Electronics PLC today announced that it has purchased from Sinclair Research Ltd the worldwide rights to sell and manufacture all existing and future Sinclair computers and computer products, together with the Sinclair brand name and those intellectual property rights where they relate to computers and computer-related products.’ The Sinclair announcement used the same wording.
    Naturally, the deal made huge news around the world. ‘Sinclair Research Sold’ ran the headline in the New York Times. The International Herald Tribune called the deal the ‘most widely followed $7 million corporate transaction in British history’. ‘Sinclair forced to sell patents to pay debts,’ echoed The Times in London. The Guardian ran with ‘Sinclair 20 million pound debts force sale to rival: Amstrad buys out pioneer home computer firm’ and Canada’s Globe and Mail went with ‘Sinclair Sells Out to Rival Amstrad’. The Economist described Sugar’s deal as a ‘neat catch’. The report began: ‘Whatgoes up must come down, and British