Word: cohen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...buyout bid, to be put together by Shearson -- not KKR. The announcement came after Johnson delivered a startling message to the RJR Nabisco board of directors: "This company ought to be in play." News of the buyout proposal stunned Henry Kravis, who felt betrayed by Shearson's chairman, Peter Cohen. For one thing, Kravis and Cohen, 41, were friends and former classmates at the Columbia Business School. Moreover, Kravis had previously spoken to Johnson about a buyout of RJR Nabisco. Now it seemed to Kravis that Cohen was trying to steal the deal. Actually, Johnson had brought the idea...
Determined not to let the RJR Nabisco deal get away, Kravis demanded that Cohen come by KKR's Manhattan offices. Chewing out Cohen in front of Shearson aides, Kravis demanded a major role in the buyout, sputtering, "This is my franchise!" Cohen walked out, suggesting they talk again in a few days. But before that talk took place, Kravis delivered a thumping counterpunch: a $20.6 billion buyout bid for RJR Nabisco...
Once both proposals were out in the open, the two sides began to think about working together. On Tuesday, Oct. 25, Kravis and Cohen made their peace over breakfast at the Plaza Hotel. In a two-day series of round-the-clock meetings that followed, the KKR and Shearson/RJR teams discussed alternative buyout plans. George Roberts, who normally works out of KKR's offices in San Francisco, and Robinson of American Express joined Kravis, Cohen and Johnson in the negotiations...
Early on, KKR reportedly offered Shearson a $125 million "kill fee" to step aside. Cohen brushed off the idea as "personally insulting." Once serious talks began, the participants saw they had different strategies in mind. KKR preferred to sell the tobacco business to pay back the buyout loans and retain the food businesses, a good fit with the Safeway chain. Johnson's team wanted to keep the tobacco company and sell off Nabisco, Del Monte and the other non-tobacco parts of the business. Positions hardened shortly after , midnight Tuesday, when KKR partner Roberts made what may prove...
Arriving at RJR's Manhattan offices about 1:15 a.m., Roberts flinched at the sight of Cohen puffing away on his ever present cigar and asked sarcastically if RJR, which sells some 290 billion cigarettes a year, also made cigars. Roberts, who moved to a seat across the room, seriously misjudged his audience. The last thing the embattled RJR team wanted to hear at that hour was another antismoking crack, especially from a would-be ally...