FACTS

From world-beating power player to Akzo Nobel business unit, we chart the demise of this once-great chemical company and ask how merger and acquisition can go so wrong.    There is no doubt that ICI was once a leading global commodity chemical company with sizeable specialty and pharmaceutical divisions. By the time the business finally merged into Akzo Nobel this year, it had shrunk into a mid-sized specialty concern. . "Yes" with the inevitable loss of UK jobs.