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 Paix, Paris of Napoleon I, part of the Napoleonic program to open the heart of the Right Bank of Paris, both towards the undeveloped western suburbs and to the north. Creating the new street required the demolition of the ancient Convent of the Capucins. At first named rue Napoléon, its name was changed in 1814, after the Bourbon Restoration, to celebrate the newly arranged peace. Based in the center of Paris, the street can be reached by: Also mentioned in the Noel Coward song: "Parisian Pierrot" (recorded 1936); "...The Rue de la Paix is under your sway..." Rue de la Paix, Paris