Word: mergers
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
BankAmerica spent last week dodging a $3.4 billion merger bid by First Interstate Bancorp and an informal takeover offer from Citicorp. But the beleaguered San Francisco company realizes that its shareholders will scream foul unless it does something to rescue its foundering finances (more than $1 billion in losses in the past six quarters). To raise cash, BankAmerica has decided to consider selling one of its crown jewels, the highly profitable Charles Schwab discount-brokerage subsidiary. The most probable buyer is none other than Charles Schwab, the company's founder, who sold out to BankAmerica in 1983 for $52 million...
During all the hubbub, one influential group of bystanders seemed ominously quiet. They were the clients: the food companies and soapmakers that had grown accustomed to undivided attention from the ad agencies. Now that the merger mania is over, many clients are passing loud and painful judgment on the results. Their verdict so far: bigger is not necessarily better. An unprecedented parade of coveted clients has quit the two supergroups for smaller agencies. One such advertiser is RJR Nabisco, which took away $32 million in accounts (example: Fleischmann's margarine) from Omnicom and $96 million from Saatchi & Saatchi/Ted Bates. Declared...
...Saatchi & Saatchi/Ted Bates have totaled more than $300 million; among the clients who canceled accounts were Colgate-Palmolive, Procter & Gamble and Warner-Lambert. While both agencies claim that they can absorb those losses without severe stress, the exodus of blue-chip clients has quickly soured Madison Avenue's merger mood...
...messy personnel struggle in September at the top of Ted Bates aggravated the feeling among some advertisers that power hunger or greed might be the true motivating force behind the mergers. Chairman Robert Jacoby, even after taking home an estimated $100 million of the $450 million merger price, proved unwilling to give up authority to his new bosses, Admen Charles and Maurice Saatchi...
...Harry Paster, executive vice president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies. "They have added some strengths to each agency that they didn't have individually." But Omnicom has a worrisome growing pain: the refusal of some advertisers to deal with an agency that handles any archrival products. The merger of three agencies brought together under one roof many combinations of fiercely competitive consumer goods. Pillsbury, for example, which had cake and frosting accounts with Omnicom, withdrew $30 million in business because another branch of the combined agency represents Betty Crocker mixes...