Why did Fortis fail to sell itself to BNP?

Yesterday, February 11, the banking world, and certainly the Belgian financial & government institutions, were baffled by the famous no, no, no from the shareholders of Fortis Group. I'm not here to take a position in were they right or wrong. But I want to try to look deeper into the reasons of the no's.

Communications !?!?

What I have seen, or not seen, is a good, basic and to the point communication from either Fortis Group, Fortis Bank, BNP Parisbas or the Belgian Government. How can you expect thousands of shareholders to understand and accept things, after loosing a lot of money, if you can't explain them what is happening and why your plan is a good idea. So far nobody has understood the 'industrial plan' of the Belgian Government, Fortis Bank and BNP. Is it to difficult to understand, or is it because nobody thought about communicating it?

This is a very nice example of how it should not be done. Now with the financial crisis it is capital for companies to communicate well and often to employees, partners, shareholders, investors, customers etc. You can communicate with very expensive events and meetings, or you can communicate with no too much money and probably reach the same goal.

Telemak is in the business of communications, webcasting, webinars, internet and audio video. We do this for a living. We do this for our customers. We do it for you?