Word: chaine
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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Open for Bids. The battle started three months ago, when word got out that the Statler family, headed by Mrs. Ellsworth Statler, widow of the founder, would listen to bids for the country's third-biggest hotel chain. Zeckendorf promptly offered $50 a share for the 1,551,226 shares of Statler stock outstanding, then selling at $43.50 a share. The Statler board of directors snapped up Zeckendorf's offer, and sent a letter to stockholders advising them to accept. But it turned out that Zeckendorf was talking to the wrong people...
...family itself. When Hilton heard of Zeckendorf's offer, he hopped on a plane, flew from California to New York to talk to "the people who really counted"-Mrs. Statler and other big family stockholders. Hilton's secret weapon: his argument that he could run the Statler chain better than anyone else. Living in Hilton's Waldorf Towers in Manhattan, Mrs. Statler had watched and admired the way Hilton did business, and was inclined to agree...
Five Are Better Than One. Why had Hilton bought the Statler hotels? For one thing, says Hilton, "they're our kind of hotel, big and comfortable." The money-making chain also gives Hilton his first foothold in such important cities as Boston, Cleveland, Detroit, Buffalo, Hartford, and Dallas. Furthermore, Hilton is a great believer in owning two or more hotels in one city (he now has five in Manhattan alone), feels he can cut costs drastically by combining facilities where Statler and Hilton hotels now compete...
Another big reason for the purchase was the tax advantage the Statler chain will bring Hilton. For tax purposes, it was almost the same as building a brand-new group of hotels; Hilton can start depreciating them at the full purchase price and not just the value at which they are carried on the Statler company's tax books. The tax advantage for Hilton amounts to about $2,200,000 a year, which, with the $2,200,000 Statler can already charge off, raises Hilton Hotels Corp.'s total annual depreciation figure...
With the Statler chain in his pocket, Connie Hilton has pulled far into the lead as the world's biggest hotel operator (27 hotels around the globe, 30,000 rooms). Says he: "When you consider how big the hotel business really is, we've got a long way to go. We're just starting...