Křetínský's values and intentions

When the megalomanic Logan Roy, patriarch of the dysfunctional media family in HBO's "Succession," is confronted with "ethical concerns" as an obstacle to a major poison-pill takeover defence, he accepts most of them but scoffs at the idea of publicly announcing his daughter as his successor. "Well, that's not quite how I do things," he says. When leaving the room, he quotes his "favorite passage from Shakespeare," which is, "Take the fucking money." Czech industrialist Daniel Křetínský finds himself in a similar situation in Paris. He wants to gain control of Le Monde but is facing opposition from employees of the French daily. "When we lost the economic control of our business, in 2010, we journalists did not abandon our culture of independence," wrote 460 of them in an open letter. They want a right to approve any new owner and see this as a "prerequisite for the opening of discussions to discover the real intentions of Mr Kretinsky." Anyone who knows Mr. Křetínský knows that this is not quite how he does things. He might not say it, but he's thinking, "Take the fucking money."