Word: merger
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...threats shake top executives more than takeover fights for their companies. Such battles often consume colossal amounts of time and cash and strip the losers of their jobs and power. New merger wars are now sweeping across U.S. industry, and the outlook is for more contests ahead. Says Jeffrey Berenson, managing director of mergers and acquisitions for Merrill Lynch: "The whole merger arena is on fire again. 1984 is starting out as another blockbuster year...
...experts who painstakingly track merger activity agree. A total of 2,533 mergers in the U.S. was reported last year by Chicago-based W.T. Grimm & Co. That was a nine-year high. "We usually don't like to make predictions," says Grimm's research director, Tomislava Simic. "But I think you can expect to see the trend continue." That alarms some economists and politicians, who contend that takeovers are wasteful and dangerously concentrate corporate power. But many businessmen answer that under current conditions it often makes more financial sense to buy an existing company than to start...
...last week's merger activity confined to energy firms. In the latest round of what is shaping up as a complex battle for control of Warner Communications (1983 revenues: about $3.5 billion), Newspaper and Magazine Publisher Rupert Murdoch filed court papers accusing the entertainment conglomerate of racketeering and fraud. The charges by Murdoch, who now owns a little more than 7% of Warner's voting stock, also named a rival suitor, Chris-Craft Industries, as a defendant. Murdoch wants the court to overturn a recent swap that would give Warner a 42.5% interest in Chris-Craft...
Some peace overtures were also made in the merger wars last week. The board of soft-drink producer Royal Crown Cos. reversed itself and agreed to recommend that stockholders accept a $40-a-share bid by Florida-based Investor Victor Posner unless a better offer comes along. Posner, an aggressive and frequently feared accumulator of big blocks of corporate stock, controls more than 26% of Royal Crown's shares. Separately, a Castle & Cooke-led group dropped its efforts to swallow Dr Pepper, another beverage company, which is planning to sell out to Forstmann Little & Co., a private investment firm...
Davis' grudge with the N.F.L. is historic. He coached the Oakland Raiders from 1963 through 1965, when the upstart American Football League appointed him its commissioner. Once he began romancing the N.F.L.'s star quarterbacks, the Establishment came around to the wisdom of merger. Whether or not he was more capable than Pete Rozelle, Davis became the odd commissioner out, and a man does not go from czar back to coach. Al took his place in the owner's box, but the game plans continue to be smudged with his fingerprints. Now and then, he also enjoys...