He expended much time and effort in 2008 marshalling arguments to see the bid off, believing that it seriously undervalued Rio and that his company was better alone.
He has left out the battle of the airwaves, where both sides expended huge amounts of time, effort and money on radio stations that ranged from the overtly propagandist to the clandestinely tweaked.
And Airbus has expended huge amounts of time, money and engineering resources on just one airliner in one part of the market, while attempting to take on Boeing, its American arch-rival, on a number of other fronts, too.