Word: bluhdorns
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...lacks the bravura of his former boss, producer Samuel Goldwyn, for whom Davis once worked as an office boy and press agent. But Davis is a man in a hurry. He leapfrogged to the top of Gulf & Western over two more senior executives after the death of conglomerateur Charles Bluhdorn. It took Davis just six years to transform Gulf & Western from an unwieldy, 1960s-style pastiche of unrelated companies into the more focused media giant that he renamed Paramount Communications the day before he launched his bid for Time Inc. He is fond of exhorting his employees to "lead, follow...
...Charles Bluhdorn was one of the earliest and flashiest corporate conglomerateurs, a master of the unfriendly takeover. Starting with a small auto-parts company in 1958, he assembled an incredible array of disparate businesses into Gulf & Western Industries (1982 sales: $5.3 billion). Bluhdorn eventually bought some 100 companies large and small, ranging from Paramount Pictures to publisher Simon & Schuster to New York City's Madison Square Garden. In one six-year period, he brought 80 firms into what became jokingly known as "Engulf and Devour." Bluhdorn died in February at 56 after a heart attack, and his successors...
...divestitures were just the latest ordered by Davis, who went to Gulf * Western from Paramount in 1969 and took over immediately after Bluhdorn's death. Davis had earlier moved to sell off $650 million of company-owned stock in 30 companies, leaving the conglomerate with some $150 million in such holdings. The money was used to bring down the company's mountain of debt to $1.2 billion. Davis then also sold Gulf + Western's 21.4% stake in Brunswick, the sports-equipment manufacturer, for $97 million...
Davis has likewise chopped away at the company's work force, reducing it by about 10,000, to 47,000. Two weeks ago, 35 managers were dropped. An earlier casualty was David Judelson, Gulf & Western's president, who was passed over for Bluhdorn's job and resigned. Judelson had overseen the disastrous multimillion-dollar investment in developing batteries for an electric car that made a splashy debut in June 1980 but then dimmed...
Gulf * Western officials believe that Bluhdorn would have approved the breaking up of the empire he built. Says Executive Vice President Neil Call: "He would be concerned about how fast we're doing it." Bluhdorn sensed that the conglomerate had got out of control and sold Brown, a paper-products firm, insurer Providence Capitol and cement producer Marquette. Davis completed the sale of Consolidated Cigar for $120 million...