Word: mergers
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...engineer by training, Lauvergeon worked as an aide to French President François Mitterrand before joining the Lazard investment bank. In the late 1990s, the government asked her to take over Cogema, a state-owned nuclear reprocessing company. Convinced that nuclear power had a big future, she orchestrated a merger with the other state-owned nuclear company, Framatome, which built plants and mined uranium, to create a French colossus. She has sought to create a positive image for the firm and for nuclear power in general by sponsoring the French yacht in the America's Cup race and by launching...
...nadir, the market valued the whole of EMI at less than the value of its publishing division alone. "The mood was tense and increasingly dark," says Rose. "We were fearful of losing control of the company. It could have been snapped up on the cheap." A 2000 merger attempt with Warner Music was rejected by the E.U. as anticompetitive. But twice during the later lean years, the companies discussed a tie-up. (And now that their balance sheets are improving, merger speculation is rife again, though Levy says the two companies aren't in talks.) Levy and Rose still believed...
Sentimental shoppers will have a lot to cry about in the coming months. With the merger last year between department-store chains Federated and May, 78 stores are going to close. But Macy's, with its name attached to more than 800 stores, will soon expand as big as a balloon in its Thanksgiving Day parade. The majority of the hometown retailers owned by May, including Marshall Field's, will be converted to the Macy's nameplate this fall, among them Kaufmann's in Pittsburgh, Pa.; Filene's in Boston; Strawbridge's in Philadelphia; Foley's in Houston; Famous-Barr...
...many ways, the $17 billion Federated-May merger is the logical evolution of decades in which the industry failed to respond to customer complaints that department stores were boring, the service nonexistent and the merchandise ubiquitous without being interesting. "Department stores have lost sight of their customer. It's that simple," says Janet Hoffman, a San Francisco--based retail strategist for Accenture. Sales tumbled, and chain after chain of historic, family-owned retailers--Gimbels, Woodward & Lothrop, Wanamaker's, Montgomery Ward--closed their doors or were swallowed up by stronger companies. In 1980, about 35 major department-store chains were...
...chance" of being selected by Federated. Of course, the change will benefit the companies that fit into Federated's strategy. Barry Miller, president of sales for $50 million high-end hosiery maker Hot Sox, figures he will sell his products in 150 more stores than he did before the merger. Even the big guys are worried. Says Liz Claiborne's Charron: "I'm concerned too. I have to be." The CEO of the $4.6 billion company estimated $50 million in lost revenue annually from the stores that Federated will close. Charron says the uncertainty is "a bit like navigating...