Word: aimed
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...traditions without losing its school pride. In the '60s, university president Earl Rudder let in women and integrated minorities on campus for the first time. He also eliminated the requirement that the entire student body be in the Corps of Cadets. Even these groundbreaking changes, which altered the entire aim of the university, were not enough to stifle the enduring Aggie spirit. An end to the yearly bonfire, a comparatively minor change, would not be enough to stifle that spirit either...
...garbage recycling [SPECIAL REPORT, Nov. 8]: I suggest you take a look at the percentage of material that many European countries are managing to recycle. Dilbeek, a commune in the western suburb of Brussels, managed to cut its garbage 70%. In the area where I live, we aim to reduce our garbage to 395 lbs. per person per year; that is 25% of what the average American citizen produces. There is no doubt that goal will be reached pretty soon. EMMANUEL DE BROUX Leignon, Belgium...
Mocha's comments point to another difference between little mergers and the monster variety (besides the obvious one of size). Although the conglomerate craze is waning, most big-time mergers still aim at a degree of diversification. But small firms almost always combine with others in the same industry. That, of course, frequently means mergers of direct competitors or potential competitors, like Personify and Anubis. But while trustbusters may try to stop such a merger between two giant competitors or at least attach onerous conditions, they are almost sure to ignore combinations of little competitors. It is difficult to imagine...
Another difference: giant mergers often aim at reducing costs by consolidating operations, and this almost invariably involves large layoffs. But the non-titans usually want to expand where they overlap. As with Personify and Anubis, "a lot of times a company will buy another company just because it means acquiring good employees," says Jason McCabe Calcanis, editor and CEO of the Silicon Alley Reporter, a magazine that tracks digital media...
Such attitudes help deflect the hostility that big mergers often arouse. Rightly or wrongly, many communities fear that big mergers equal big layoffs and a loss of control over the local economy to faraway conglomerateurs. Since little mergers usually aim at faster growth and, eventually, more employment, they are usually seen as a positive force in the economy--and that perception seems correct...