Word: itt
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...ITT, in particular, is under attack by Irwin Jacobs, a Minneapolis investor whose threats to take over companies and then dismantle them have earned him the nickname "Irv the Liquidator." Jacobs has bought an estimated 2% of ITT's stock and wants to break up the company. The stock now sells for only about $32 per share, and analysts estimate that stockholders could get up to $60 per share if all the parts of ITT were sold separately. Says Jacobs: "ITT's management has created such a monster of overhead in its operations that something's got to happen...
That "monster" was largely the creation of Geneen, who became ITT's president in 1959 and chairman in 1964. He took what was basically a telecommunications company and transformed it into a vast empire that Author Anthony Sampson dubbed the Sovereign State of ITT. Says Felix Rohatyn, who as an investment banker with Lazard Freres helped put ITT together: "Under Harold Geneen, ITT was a company that essentially knew no limits. He thought anything was manageable." The result was a corporation that in 1979 had 370,000 employees in more than 100 countries. Among its multitude of ventures, ITT...
...decision to streamline ITT was a long time coming, partly because Geneen was a long time going. He turned 65 in 1975 but was reluctant to retire. Staying on as chairman, he installed an heir apparent, Lyman Hamilton, as % chief executive officer in 1978. But after Hamilton started planning a big reorganization, Geneen sacked...
When Geneen finally turned over the chairmanship to Araskog in 1980, he kept a seat on the board of directors. Says Robert Sobel, author of ITT, a 1982 history of the company: "Araskog wanted to sell a lot of companies at the outset, but Geneen seemed to think that selling anything that he originally purchased represented a slap in the face." Some Wall Streeters believe it was not until Geneen left the board in May 1983 that Araskog, a West Point graduate who grew up on a Minnesota farm, could assume full command. The clearest signal that he was committed...
...that time, ITT was already mired in a slump. Profits were an estimated $462 million in 1984, down from a 1980 peak of $894 million. One reason for the poor performance was that the company's $8 billion debt, largely a legacy of the Geneen years, generated an annual interest bill of more than $600 million. In addition, ITT received a large portion of its revenues in foreign currencies. Profits were depressed because these currencies weakened against the dollar...