Word: american
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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MUSIC 50th ANNIVERSARY COLLECTION (Blue Note). JAZZ MASTERPIECES (Columbia). A digital swingfest! Two of the foremost chroniclers of American jazz have opened their vaults to bring some of the most outstanding performances of the past six decades to a new generation of listeners -- as well as to older fans who never heard the originals sound so good. Blue Note's five-volume anthology samples the works of such greats as Sidney Bechet, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock. Columbia's offering, the latest...
Nearly everyone saw an attacker on the horizon. The question was who it would be. For weeks the rumors swirled that someone might launch a takeover raid on American Airlines, the largest and most respected U.S. carrier. In August the board of American's parent company, AMR, bolstered its so-called poison-pill defenses by allowing management greater flexibility to issue new stock in order to make a takeover more expensive. The Fort Worth company also signed up the high-powered Wall Street firms Goldman Sachs and Salomon Brothers to develop a full-defense strategy. AMR even asked...
...What had American done to deserve this? After all, AMR is widely regarded as the best run of the big U.S. airline companies. Under the aggressive leadership of chairman Robert Crandall, corporate revenues have more than doubled in the past six years, to $8.8 billion. Most impressive, the airliner built its modern fleet of 683 aircraft with relatively little borrowing. Against $2.6 billion in assets at the end of last year, AMR held a modest $1.2 billion in long-term debt...
...Even so, American's Crandall is as tough as barbed wire and likely to unleash a counterattack to protect his company. Crandall has a proprietary attitude, having crafted the airline's go-go expansion since he became company president in 1980. He invented the frequent-flyer program and instituted the first supersaver fares. To cut labor costs, Crandall introduced a two-tier wage system under which younger hires were paid less than veteran workers. "Crandall won't give up easily," says an industry hand. "He sees American as his company. Trump's bid is a slap in his face...
...American's best defense seems likely to be an attack on the amount of debt needed to finance a takeover attempt. Trump, whose personal fortune is estimated at between $1 billion and $3 billion, has offered to put $1 billion of his own money into the deal. The rest would come from bank loans. Trump may get the money, but politicians and air-safety experts have alleged that highly leveraged carriers might be tempted to skimp on safety measures to maintain profits. AMR released a statement last week saying it "continues to believe that excess levels of debt...