By Meagan Clark - After weeks of negotiations, the French government said it has accepted a $16.9 billion offer from American conglomerate General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) to take over the French manufacuring company Alstom’s energy business, but the government will take a 20 percent stake in Alstom.
Arnaud Montebourg, French economy and industry minister, said the terms of the final deal with GE were "hard but necessary" to protect the interests of the state, the Financial Times reported.
GE had announced Thursday a revised $13.5 billion bid for Alstom’s energy business and set a June 23 deadline for its offer to be accepted by the Alstom board, the New York Times reported.
GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt met with French Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg in Paris on Thursday, the third such meeting since late April when GE launched a $17 billion bid for the French engineering firm’s business. Germany’s Siemens AG and Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. made competing offers to the French.
Immelt was expected to concede on a number of terms, like giving the French government a say in the fate of Alstom products that Paris deems strategic, the Wall Street Journal reported.