Word: mergers
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Even the wives of pro-football fans had no trouble divining the reason behind last month's sudden merger of the rival National and American football leagues. In a word, money-the staggering bonuses (up to $600,000 last year) paid to college stars by the hotly competing pro leagues. It was bound to be merely a matter of time until veteran players (and their lawyers) decided to grab for a leaf of the lettuce...
...holdout who really rattled the rafters was Quarterback John Brodie of the San Francisco 49ers, No. 1 passer in the N.F.L. last year. Before the merger, Brodie had accepted a threeyear, $750,000 contract to play for the A.F.L.'s Houston Oilers. His deal was abrogated by the merger. Brodie took a trip to Hawaii, hired San Francisco Attorney John Elliott Cook to represent him, and threatened a court action against the merger unless somebody coughed up the $750,000 he had been promised-plus damages...
Court action was the last thing the leagues' lawyers wanted, for fear that a charge of deliberately eliminating their own competition might stick. "If it ever gets to court," said one attorney last week, "the merger will be dead-as soon as somebody whispers the word antitrust...
...William Lyons, 64, founder and chairman of Jaguar Cars Ltd., has always been one of Britain's most fiercely independent automakers. Known around his Coventry headquarters as the "Headmaster" for his autocratic rule, he has scoffed at the industry-wide merger trend, maintained that Jaguar would not go on the block "in my lifetime." Last week he made a surprising U-turn: after two years of quiet negotiations, Sir William and British Motor Corp. Chairman Sir George Harriman announced that B.M.C. will buy out Jaguar in a $51 million stock transfer deal...
...Yankee invasion is no joking matter to European automakers. U.S.-owned or controlled companies now account for about a third of all cars built in Europe. G.M.'s Vauxhall, British Ford and Chrysler-controlled Rootes Motors together produce nearly 50% of all British-made cars. Like the recent merger of France's Renault and Peugeot in France, the B.M.C.-Jaguar combine, to be known as British Motor (Holdings) Ltd., is geared to combat the U.S.'s advances in Europe...