Word: mergers
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...began as a fairly straightforward corporate merger fight. But by last week the multiplying twists and turns in the convoluted takeover battle between Bendix Corp., the Michigan-based aerospace and auto-parts manufacturer, and Martin Marietta Corp., a leading defense contractor of Bethesda, Md., had become an embarrassing parody of Big Business in action. Seemingly unconcerned about the best interests of their stockholders or employees, some of America's top executives were threatening each other with multibillion-dollar stock ploys, while jetting cross-country for clandestine strategy sessions, tying up courtrooms from Michigan to Maryland and wasting millions...
...wind up in the black for the entire year. Even so, Chrysler's long-term survival remains unsure. More than either of its top competitors, Chrysler is badly in need of capital to develop new products for later in the decade, and the company is looking for a merger partner, which would most likely come from Europe or Japan...
Unfortunately, the cover-story focus on "Merger Mania" has long obscured the fact that few such pairings are even remotely friendly partnerships. More often, they are one-sided takeovers by well-heeled companies determined to expand. Even when a company is saved from unwanted takeover by the intervention of a more desirable "white knight" purchaser, results aren't necessarily cheery. Employees of Conoco now say that life under Du Pont is far from fun, citing in particular the chemical giant's nasty job shake-ups and layoffs, and its sudden imposition of inconsiderate work rules...
...country editorialized that Bendix's shakedown cruise pointed up the need for stricter federal regulation. Undoubtedly true, but the recommendation is unrealistic in the Age of Reagan. More practically, the unseemly Bendix affair should provoke a little reassessment on the part of American industry, a realization that "mass merger" is equivalent to corporate suicide Last month's theatrics show that today's mergers often have nothing to do with efficiency and productivity. They stem, instead, from a sense of institutional machismo that craves acquisition. America's business giants have yet to learn that their corporate masturbation, while fleetingly exciting...
Another possible snag: the A.L.C. requires that any merger be ratified by two-thirds of its 4,900 U.S. congregations. But A.L.C. Presiding Bishop David Preus, until recently a foot dragger on union, predicts a happy ending. Says he: "It is apparent that the rank and file in our church wish to go ahead with dispatch." Remaining outside the process is the conservative, 2.6 million-member Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod...