Word: biches
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Brokers on the Paris Bourse had never seen anything like it. At least not over something so mundane as a disposable ballpoint pen. Last month, when Baron Marcel Bich sold a fraction of his pen company's 1,500,000 shares to the French public, investors went into a frenzy over Société Bic. On opening day there were offers for 8,000,000 shares, but only 300,000 were made available; the price promptly jumped from $176 to $208. Helped by that rise, Baron Bich's holdings in the company that he controls increased...
...schools, offices and households of 96 countries. Nearly a billion and a half Bics are rolled out of 20 plants round the world every year according to company officials; they account for one-third of the world's ballpoint total, and production has been rising 10% annually. Baron Bich has done for ballpoints what Henry Ford did for cars: he has produced a cheap but serviceable model...
...races, was smitten by the majesty of it all, and decided to challenge for France. To learn about 12-meter design, he bought both contenders in the 1964 competition: Britain's Sovereign and the U.S.'s Constellation, Designer Olin Stephens' runaway winner. Next, Bich tried to buy Stephens' Intrepid, which crushed an Australian challenge in 1967. When he was rebuffed, Bich asked a brilliant young American, Britton Chance Jr., to design Chancegger, embodying the latest ideas in 12-meters. When the baron was ready to build his own France, he had taken notes on four boats...
Everything but Experience. By the time Bich arrived in Newport last June, he had spent upwards of $2,000,000. The only thing lacking was what money could not buy-experience. That was something the Australians had in abundance. Sir Frank Packer and Designer Alan Payne had been the 1962 challengers and, though they lost, Gretel I did win a race from the Americans. This time they were on hand with an obviously much improved Gretel II and a crew of towering hearties headed by Veteran Blue-water Skipper James Hardy...
...best four-out-of-seven series, it seemed as if France might give Gretel II a real run for her money. In the first two races in light, fluky airs, France stood right up to the Australian boat and at times even pointed higher into the wind. Bich's crews were sharp and in both cases challenged closely until the final stages, when the Australians went on to win. But then in the third race, Gretel II's superiority-and that of her crew-became more marked. The Aussies won in a walk, and to all intents...