Word: bluhdorn
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...built the conglomerates were vastly different from the reigning generation of bosses. They were classic outsiders--non-Eastern, non-American, non-Wasp and non-Ivy. Rebels such as James Ling, founder of Ling-Temco-Vought, Charles Bluhdorn of Gulf & Western Industries (satirized as Engulf & Devour) and Harold Geneen of International Telephone and Telegraph stormed America's corporate towers even as students and protesters were laying siege to the nation's ivory towers...
Astute risk takers and charismatic salesmen like Ling, Bluhdorn and Geneen were among the first to see the opportunities. The bull market that began in 1962 was kinder to some companies than to others, leaving many quality firms relatively undervalued and thus takeover targets. "We had a lot of different sources of financing," says Ling, 75, of LTV, in its heyday the 14th largest company in the U.S. "But we usually swapped our companies' stock for [that of] the firms we were buying...
Austrian immigrant Bluhdorn took a run-down Michigan auto-parts distributor and built it into Gulf & Western Industries, a $2 billion marvel whose activities ranged from mining (New Jersey Zinc) to movies (Paramount Studios). By 1969, the former $15-a-week clerk was worth $50 million...
...rising interest rates and a falling market. A surprisingly anticonglomerate Nixon Administration crimped the most aggressive expansions in the interest of protecting what Ling calls "the smokestack-industry crowd" of old-line executives. Ling was forced out of LTV in 1970 as part of an antitrust settlement. Bluhdorn died on a company jet in 1983. Geneen piloted ITT for nearly 20 years, acquiring more than 350 firms before retiring...
...native of the Bronx, Davis joined Paramount in 1958 as director of sales and marketing. After G&W bought the studio in 1966, Davis quickly rose to become the principal deputy to company founder Bluhdorn. When Davis gained control of the company in 1983, he immediately spun off some 100 subsidiaries, ranging from zinc mines to sugar plantations. Within 2 1/2 years, he reduced the company's size by half...