Guinness led to a scandal and criminal trial concerning the artificial inflation of the Guinness share price during the takeover bid engineered by the chairman, Ernest Saunders. A subsequent £5.2 million success fee paid to an American lawyer and Guinness director, Tom Ward, was the subject of the case "Guinness plc v Saunders", in which the House of Lords declared that the payment had been invalid. In the 1980s, as the IRA's bombing campaign spread to London and the rest of Britain, Guinness considered scrapping the harp as its logo. The company merged with Grand Metropolitan in 1997 to form Diageo.
Guinness family Guinness family The Guinness family is an extensive aristocratic Anglo-Irish Protestant family noted for their accomplishments in brewing, banking, politics, and religious ministry. They are particularly known among the general public for producing the dry stout, Guinness Beer. The founder of the dynasty, Arthur Guinness, is confirmed to have had McCartan origins. Beginning in the late 18th century, they became a prominent part of what is known in Ireland as 'the Ascendancy'. Four members of the family in succession held the UK Parliament constituency of Southend, which became popularly known as "Guinness-on-Sea". The "banking line" Guinnesses all descend from Arthur's