Word: lebow
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...ready to cave in, the tobacco giants call the agreement a lot of huffing and puffing and a desperate ploy by Liggett boss Bennett LeBow to cut his losses and possibly force another cigarette maker to buy him out. Liggett's deal is transferable to any acquiring tobacco company except Philip Morris. "The only ones who potentially benefit from LeBow's latest shenanigans are plaintiffs' lawyers," said a joint statement from the four major cigarette makers (Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson Tobacco and Lorillard), who account for 98% of U.S. tobacco sales. Through the first nine months...
...wonder LeBow gleefully handed out smoking guns as if they were product samples. The smallest U.S. cigarette maker, whose brands include Chesterfield, L&M and Eve, admitted what just about everyone outside the industry long held as fact: that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease and emphysema. In another affirmation of the obvious, Liggett acknowledged that nicotine is an addictive substance. That refuted the sworn denials that seven industry leaders, including a Liggett representative, made before Congress in 1994. Says LeBow of the thinking behind last week's confessions: "It was a business, a moral and a personal decision...
After decades of believing, antitobacco forces finally found their Santa Claus. Sure enough, he's short, plump and round, sports a silver beard and grins impishly. But his name isn't Santa Claus, it's Bennett LeBow...
...LeBow, 59, makes an unlikely populist hero. He's an '80s-style corporate buccaneer who plundered Western Union, rattled American Brands and took runs at Prime Computer and RJR Nabisco. As head of the Liggett tobacco company, he has contributed to one of America's unhealthiest habits, but last week, ironically, he became the bearer of gifts to those plotting the demise of the cigarette industry. In settling a raft of lawsuits, LeBow agreed to turn over documents that presumably tell what the tobacco execs knew and when they knew...
...does LeBow feel about being the maverick who broke ranks with his peers? "I just feel like we've done the right thing," he says. "I'm not a maverick." He can deny that all he wants. But LeBow is more maverick than James Garner. He shuns glamour, preferring to invest in down-and-out companies. He has teamed up with the likes of Carl Icahn, a consummate outsider. And he doesn't mind an ugly fight...