It is also trying to negotiate ultra-sensitive transcontinental alliances It desperately needs a period of calm. That would be messy, noisy, prolonged and deeply embarrassing C&W is ripe for takeover. But if he is to quell the rebellion, he needs to move quickly - the dissent is growing.More likely, however, is that it will be Lord Young who is thrown over the side. Much easier to dispose of a chairman who is going in 15 months anyway. The alternative is to risk losing an entire layer of executive directors.
He and Win Bischoff, the non-exec likely to play a key role in any boardroom reshaping, go back a long way "Everyone else brings me problems. David brings me solutions," was Mrs Thatcher's assessment of Lord Young. He could yet persuade the non-execs that the best "solution" is for Mr Ross to walk the plank. Some senior executives believe the current relationship can still be salvaged, so long as Lord Young is prepared to take more of a backseat role I am not so sanguine.
He is much more likely to view his colleagues' decision to complain to the non-executive directors as a terrible betrayal. To borrow a phrase from a different dispute, the relationship has now irretrievably broken down Any trust has gone. There have to be departures. Mr Ross is gathering allies among the executive directors and is probably marginally preferred among institutional investors (who, it has to be said, don't feel any great love for either of them).Lord Young should not be underestimated Most of the non-executives are his appointments. What will happen in the second reel? It's a difficult one to call. One thing is a stone cold certainty: the two protagonists won't both still be on board when the final credits roll. Lord Young makes a rather curious Captain Bligh - resented not for any cruelty to his crew, but for his insistence in pottering off into obscure backwaters to do deals with the natives instead of getting on with the voyage originally planned. JAMES ROSS's sensational decision to challenge Lord Young has all the drama of a modern-day Mutiny on the Bounty.
Mr Ross is the latter- day Fletcher Christian, risking all to wrest control of Cable & Wireless from his boss. Profits are thought to have been hit, not least by the impact of the National Lottery.Then, say those close to the family, may well be the moment when the decision is finally taken to sell.In the meantime, the Moores will carry on fighting and debating, and even in these straitened times, adding to their millions.. More significant, say insiders, is not these meetings, which are due to be held in the next few weeks, but the gathering of the clan next spring to hear this year's financial results. An extraordinary general meeting where a vote will be taken to allow Mr Dale to see the books is finely balanced. One group, fed up with the internal squabbles and thought to represent 30 per cent of the shares, wants to sell out completely. John Moores is also understood to want to sell his shares while retaining some sort of association.A forthcoming meeting of the family is unlikely to resolve anything.
His interest may yet lead to a counter-approach from KKR.Meanwhile, the family is deeply divided. Two months ago he made his move, using an intermediary to tell Mr van Geest he was thinking of buying his company.That offer has now been formalised in a letter from his advisers to the board. Meanwhile, Network's investigations had discovered nothing untoward.While the company made noises about finding a new chief executive, Mr Dale, who is pursuing the company for unfair dismissal, was plotting his revenge. His dismissal came after a secret meeting of senior family members and Mr van Geest at the Savoy Hotel in London, where the call was made for the company to go back to Moores management. They wanted Mr Dale to be dismissed and a young member of the family, with no experience of running such a large group, to step in.A few weeks later, Mr Pitcher resigned.The triumvirate had now all departed. Bizarrely, though, it did not stop there: Mr Pitcher suspected someone was trying to find out about his financial affairs; Mr Dale, the chief executive, also became convinced he was being investigated In March this year, Mr Dale's fears proved correct.