Mannerisms

Maybe, now that the Infineon supervisory board has lain down and let KKR have its way with it, the board wants to make sure that Mr Bauer does not get any lofty  ideas that he's allowed independent thought.

After all CEO Dr Ziebart had independent thoughts, which disagreed with the supervisory board, and the supervisory board had to run to Wall Street to get KKR to agree to buy the company which forced Ziebart out.

So what kind of authority does a boss have when he's called 'Spokesman of the Management Board'? Not a lot.

Infineon's Supervisory Board has been a disaster for  years. First by engaging in a petty plot to get rid of Ziebart's predecessor, Dr Ulrich Schumacher, and now calling in the Americans to oustZiebart.

Ziebart was fighting with one hand tied behind his back by the supervisory board. As Dr Schumacher tried before him, Ziebart wanted to minimise costs by moving a lot of HQ and other activities out of Germany into low-cost areas, but was not allowed to do so by the supervisory board.

Earlier this week, Carlo Ferro, ST's CFO, was saying that ST had the lowest exposure to tax in the industry at 13-16 per cent as against an average 27 per cent for his competitors.

That's because Pasquale Pistorio set up ST to operate in low-tax, low-cost areas. Ziebart wasn't allowed to do that by the Infineon Supervisory Board.

However, when the supervisory board is lying on its back waiting for KKR to have its will with it, it will quicly learn how to cut costs and reduce tax exposure.

So why didn't it do that before? Because the supervisory board seems to have little idea how the semiconductor industry works. It requires a lot of capital, but is almost infinitely mobile. You have to lay off  one against the other. 

Good luck Peter Bauer. When the board gives you something to say as their 'Spokesman', hopefully it won't be something that makes you feel sick.