Word: bidness
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...this frivolous?" I said, "Define frivolous." They said, not frivolous would be anything north of the highest that the stock of this company has ever traded at. That is about $71 per share. I said, "It is north of that." They said, "Well, then you should make the bid...
...battle to control RJR Nabisco has pitted some of Wall Street's most powerful investment houses against one another, but the financial muscle behind the bidding is really the legacy of one man: Michael Milken. It is not just that Milken's firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert, is bankrolling the Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bid to the tune of $5 billion. Milken's role is much grander and far more controversial. The boyish moneyman with the tousled toupee and the obsessive work habits has almost single-handedly sparked the frenzy of takeovers and buyouts that has given the Roaring Eighties their name...
...securities to raise mountains of money for hostile takeovers. In fact, the preferred opening salvo of corporate raiders became the dreaded letter from Drexel in which the firm stated it was "highly confident" of coming up with the necessary cash. In some cases, like T. Boone Pickens' failed bid in 1984 for Gulf Oil, Drexel charged a hefty fee for lining up money that it never had to deliver. But in many other raids, including Ronald Perelman's 1985 takeover of Revlon, Milken raised billions through his network of buyers. Before long, Milken's annual junk-bond conference became known...
Many Wall Street insiders thought the KKR bid was as self-serving and hasty as Johnson's offer had been. "They broke the golden rule by injecting their egos into a business decision," said one financier who knows KKR well. "They went after RJR Nabisco to protect their franchise as the largest dealmaker...
...That bid, quickly dubbed a "Chicago submarine" because it would torpedo the competition, easily surpassed both rival offers. The Johnson team had bid $23 billion, or $100 a share, while KKR had proposed a package worth $21.6 billion, or $94 a share. Board members extended the deadline until Tuesday, Nov. 29, to take any counteroffers and allow time to study each proposal. If none is accepted, the directors could supervise an RJR restructuring themselves...