Word: mergers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...members of this elite group, who number no more than a score, are the merger and acquisition specialists of the top American investment banks. They are the financiers of capitalism, raising funds for corporations with stock and bond issues, as well as trading securities for their own accounts. The best known of their breed was J.P. Morgan, the great financier who died in 1913. Morgan once wrote, "My job is more fun than being king, pope, or prime minister, for no one can turn me out of it, and I don't have to make any compromises with principles...
Whether it involves finding a buyer for a company like Esmark or plotting the hostile takeover of an unsuspecting firm, mergermaking has become perhaps the choicest job in American finance. "This is the era of the superstars in the merger and acquisition world," says Ivan Boesky, the merger investment specialist. "You've got perhaps ten men guiding the future of corporate America...
...purchase, to take effect in June, is part of a recent merger mania by Macmillan (1983 sales: $430.5 million), whose businesses include the Katharine Gibbs secretarial schools and the Berlitz language instruction programs. Macmillan last year acquired six companies, including three educational publishers. The latest takeover will strengthen Macmillan in such areas as children's books, reference works and college texts...
Finding it increasingly hard to compete with larger rivals like Doubleday, the Scribner chairman last fall suggested the merger to Macmillan. "It came to father as a natural match that had eluded us in past offers," recalled Executive Vice President Charles Scribner III, 33. "He felt Macmillan would be the platonic ideal for a match and approached them as if to say, 'We could be very happy together. We should consider getting married...
Such deals have aroused fears of a shrinking market for authors. Jeremiah Kaplan, executive vice president of Macmillan, sought to calm such worries: "This merger will not diminish the number of books being published by all our companies. In fact, they may well be increased. We admire the books that Scribner does so well. That is, after all, one of its attractions." -By John Greenwald. Reported by Richard Brims/New York