Word: mergers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Ivan Boesky insider-trading disclosures of Nov. 14 and expecting more to come, investors pulled their money out of takeover-target stocks and instead poured their cash into stabler, less controversial shares. Nevertheless, takeover artists got back some of their nerve and launched a flurry of new merger bids. All the while, angry accusations flew back and forth as the players in the widening controversy -- investors, raiders, regulators and legislators -- debated who was to blame for the state of affairs and what should be done to clean...
...most ravaged investors last week were Boesky's colleagues, the risk arbitragers who speculate on takeovers by investing in target companies. Arbitragers, who gamble that share prices will rise in value as a proposed merger approaches its conclusion, were left holding huge volumes of so-called deal stocks when the Boesky scandal broke. Those shares took a sharp plunge last week as investors rushed to dump them, leaving the "arbs" with collective losses of $1 billion or more. The arbitrage department at Merrill Lynch, for example, is estimated by competitors to have dropped $20 million to $50 million...
...modern industrial miracle." That is how General Motors Chairman Roger Smith has characterized the 1984 merger between GM, the world's largest industrial company, and Electronic Data Systems, the biggest computer-services firm. But the marriage of the two giants has not been completely harmonious. From the beginning, there have been predictable problems in integrating EDS's data services into GM's far-flung operations. Worse, EDS Chairman Ross Perot, who is now GM's largest stockholder (11.3 million shares) and a member of the board of directors, has become a burr in Smith's side. Perot has publicly sniped...
Among them were January 1985 merger talks between Diamond Shamrock, a Dallas energy firm, and Occidental Petroleum -- discussions that subsequently broke off. Another case is said to involve T. Boone Pickens' February 1985 takeover bid for Unocal. Pickens eventually backed away after Unocal bought up his holdings in the company. Analysts estimate that he broke even on the takeover bid. Yet another situation reportedly involves a successful June 1985 offer by the voracious Wickes for Gulf & Western's consumer- and industrial-products group, which manufactures such products as Simmons mattresses and Burlington hosiery...
...Broadcaster Ted Turner's acquisition of MGM/UA, for which the Atlanta buccaneer paid $1.6 billion last March. In October 1985 the New York-based Maxxam Group, an investment and real estate- holdings firm, made an $800 million tender offer for San Francisco's Pacific Lumber, leading to the companies' merger early this year. Boesky is said to have bought 10,000 shares of Pacific Lumber stock three days before the tender was made public, and he may eventually have owned 5.1% of the company's shares. Another case reportedly receiving scrutiny is the $400 million merger in February of Lorimar...