After THUSSENKRUPP, the German groups SIEMENS and BOSCH have made a bid for ATECS (automobile equipment and machine-tools; 12.3 bn turnover in 1999 with 90,000 employees) from MANNESMANN. The offer stands at 9.1 bn euro, a higher bid than the one made by the steel group THYSSENKRUPP, which proposed 8.75 bn euro. MANNESMANN, moreover, declared that it had received a third offer the source of which it has not revealed but which is said to have come from "baking circles". See EI of 3&4...