Word: mergers
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Many members of Congress, including Judiciary's Rodino and Rhode Island Democrat Fernand St Germain, the chairman of the House Banking Committee, see a disturbing connection among high interest rates, sluggish growth and the merger explosion. In the bidding battle for Conoco alone, they note, the contestants lave lined up some $20 billion in standby bank credit. Though much of the financing comes from European banks, many economists and executives contend that heavy loan demands from the merger candidates help keep the U.S. money supply tight and make it more difficult for a small business to finance new machinery...
Congressional critics, though, blame the Reagan Administration for creating a new atmosphere that encourages merger fever. The President appointed William Baxter, a Stanford law professor who firmly believes in the virtues of large-scale enterprises unfettered by excessive Government regulation, to be his antitrust chief in the Justice Department. Baxter's boss, Attorney General William French Smith, succinctly stated the new Adminstration's philosophy in an oft-quoted speech before the District of Columbia Bar. Said Smith: "Bigness in business is not necessarily badness. Efficient firms should not be hobbled under the guise of antitrust enforcement...
Baxter openly accepts some responsibility for the merger phenomenon. Said he last week: "The statements we've made at the Justice Department have allowed people to think about mergers that they really wouldn't have thought about in past Administrations." Mobil's bid for Conoco is a case in point. Such a merger between two of the top ten petroleum companies would never have been seriously considered during Jimmy Carter's term. Baxter insists that his trustbusters will not allow any acquisition that significantly reduces competition within the oil industry or any other. He also maintains...
...biggest name in merger making at the moment is Morgan Stanley, which is representing Conoco. It will earn a record fee of nearly $15 million on the eventual agreement, no matter which company is successful. Morgan Stanley's merger team is led by Robert Greenhill, 45, a dapper dresser who wears wide suspenders dotted, appropriately enough, with large dollar signs...
Mobil, another Conoco suitor, has hired the merger team of Merrill Lynch White Weld, which is headed by Carl Ferenbach, 39. Du Pont has retained the services of First Boston Corp., whose merger mentors, Joseph Perella, 39, and Bruce Wasserstein, 33, last March masterminded Fluor's $2.7 billion purchase of St. Joe Minerals. Their fee for that deal: $3.5 million. If Du Pont wins Conoco's hand, First Boston could pocket as much as $15 million. But even if some other firm walks off the winner, First Boston will still claim a $750,000 loser...