Word: conoco
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...older employees, to the management staff at its Wilmington, Del., headquarters and workers at 38 of its 86 manufacturing plants nationwide. Some 18% of the 16,900 eligible employees took the money and left. Du Pont, burdened by interest payments on the $3.9 billion it borrowed to buy Conoco, estimates that the staff reductions will save the company $30 million over the next three or four years...
...largest white knight merger of all was Du Pont's purchase of Conoco in September 1981 for $7.4 billion, against hostile bids by Mobil and Seagram. Conoco has turned into Du Pont's most profitable division; its performance blocked Du Pont's earnings last year from being even lower than they were. But the recession has weighed heavily on the chemical giant, making the huge debt from the Conoco purchase harder to carry, and forcing the company to omit its customary extra year-end dividend. To save money, Du Pont executives have announced plans to close Conoco...
...American investors fumed, Canadian companies rushed in to buy the assets of U.S. firms in Canada, helped by generous financing from Canadian banks. In one of the biggest transactions, Canada's Dome Petroleum spent $3.2 billion acquiring Hudson's Bay Oil & Gas, a subsidiary of Connecticut-based Conoco Inc. In the nationalistic climate of 1980-81, Canadian companies spent more than $7.3 billion on the purchase of foreign-held assets, creating a massive drain on the economy. Severely compounding the problem, Canadians invested at least $19 billion in the U.S. during roughly the same period...
America has become inured to colossal business mergers in the last two years. Weddings like those of Occidental Petroleum and Cities Service, United States Steel and Marathon Oil, and the record-setting $7.5 billion union of Du Pont and Conoco have sometimes been shotgun affairs, sometimes harmonious ones. Throughout, the national press has doled out coverage indiscriminately in its continual search for bigness...
...that few such pairings are even remotely friendly partnerships. More often, they are one-sided takeovers by well-heeled companies determined to expand. Even when a company is saved from unwanted takeover by the intervention of a more desirable "white knight" purchaser, results aren't necessarily cheery. Employees of Conoco now say that life under Du Pont is far from fun, citing in particular the chemical giant's nasty job shake-ups and layoffs, and its sudden imposition of inconsiderate work rules...