De La Rue on March 2005 Sequoia was sold to Smartmatic, a multi-national technology company which had developed advanced election systems, voting machines included. In 2003, the company acquired the Debden-based banknote printing operations of the Bank of England. In 2003 and 2004 the company supplied banknotes to Iraq. The company was recognised by Hermann Simon as a role model for other small- to medium-sized businesses in his book "Hidden Champions". The Highest Perfection, a history of De La Rue was published in 2011. Written by Peter Pugh for De La Rue, it covered the years 1712–2003. In August 2014, the company announced
Rue de la République occasion, both located along the rue de la République : the Place Impériale (now Place de la République) and the Place des Cordeliers. The street, long over a kilometer, follows a southwest–northeast axis from the Place Bellecour to the Place de la République, then a north–south axis to the Place Louis Pradel. In 1894, the President Sadi Carnot was assassinated at the palace of Commerce, located on the Place des Cordeliers. In the 1970s, the construction of the line A of Metro generated the digging of trenches on the entire street. The location of the Rue de la République, in