Word: italia
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Agnelli's Fiat engineered a takeover together with Electricité de France of energy giant Montedison. While both are billion-dollar deals, they are infinitely more important for their symbolic value. If Colaninno had shocked the Italian business establishment in May 1999 with his heavily leveraged takeover of Telecom Italia, July 2001 marked the return of the old guard. The Pirellis and Agnellis have been Italy's movers and shakers since just after World War II in what was known as the salotto buono, the exclusive club of northern Italian capitalists...
...rather Byzantine legislation, Mediobanca was Italy's only merchant bank for decades, which meant virtually no big deals were done without Cuccia. But by the late 1990s, the Cuccia-Agnelli alliance began falling apart. Mediobanca sided with Colaninno when he and his wealthy backers made their move for Telecom Italia. It was a direct challenge to the Agnellis, who had installed their own man to run the former state monopoly...
...short-lived, as he turned out to be unlucky in his alliances. Cuccia died, and D'Alema was forced to resign as Prime Minister, only to be eventually succeeded by Berlusconi this spring. Then the market turned against Colaninno in March, punishing the share prices of Olivetti and Telecom Italia, and causing some concern among Colaninno's investors, largely 175 businessmen from Mantua who had backed him in the hopes of a quick return on their money. No new investors were on the horizon, and a plan to raise $8 billion in cash through a conversion of savings shares...
...curtain was about to fall for Colaninno. Pirelli and Benetton put together a $6 billion package that allowed them to buy 23% of Olivetti, which in turn owns 55% of Telecom Italia. Since they already owned nearly 4% of Olivetti, their share rose to 27%, with which they can control the telecom giant. Tronchetti Provera, who is credited with turning around Pirelli, had been sitting on $3.2 billion in cash after selling two optical technology firms to Cisco and Corning. For months the guessing game in Milan was what will Pirelli buy? "Telecom has a strong market position...
...Berlusconi government, which Agnelli has supported, has officially remained neutral in the Telecom Italia deal, although a few ministers expressed satisfaction that the firm would remain in Italian hands, as have most of the Italian media, perhaps no surprise since most of the major papers are largely controlled by the main players in the deal. "Maybe the old-style is better," muses Galli. "But it seems to me that we've brought the king back." And the crown prince as well...