Word: rjr
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...helped that HBO had a very good book (the 1990 best seller Barbarians at the Gate, by Wall Street Journal reporters Bryan Burrough and John Helyar) and a very big leveraged buyout (Kohlberg Kravis Roberts' epic $25 billion takeover of RJR Nabisco in 1988) to work with. And the $7 million HBO earmarked for the project probably came in handy too. The film remains reasonably faithful to the spirit of the book, while vastly simplifying the plot. Whereas Burrough and Helyar recount a story that involves dozens of rapacious financiers, greedy executives, odious publicists, duplicitous bankers and devious attorneys...
...refresh all our memories, let's recall that the whole RJR fiasco got started when a hard-drinking, cigar-smoking, foul-mouthed Canadian expatriate named F. Ross Johnson, who for some inexplicable reason found himself running the 19th largest industrial company in the U.S., decided to take the food and tobacco colossus private in a leveraged buyout...
SMOKING? OR NONSMOKING? PEOPLE ARE OFFERED such a choice by restaurants and airlines. But now investors will be able to choose under a novel stock plan devised by tobacco and food giant RJR Nabisco. As part of a deal to raise $1.5 billion to reduce its $14 billion debt, RJR Nabisco will create two new classes of stock: RN-Reynolds, which will mainly represent the company's tobacco business, and RN-Nabisco, a proxy for the firm's food operations. RJR Nabisco is the nation's largest cookiemaker and the second biggest cigarette manufacturer...
Stock analysts applauded the plan because it will allow the two parts of RJR to be valued for their individual worth. And since some investment funds have been barred from holding RJR shares for ethical reasons, the deal would attract new investors...
...President-elect, in fact, seemed eager to guard his Administration in advance against any charge that it represents special interests. Some skeptics had already questioned Vernon Jordan's position as chairman of the transition, noting that Jordan is a director of cigarette-making RJR Nabisco, and wondering if he would help pick public health officials. Clinton answered firmly that he, not Jordan, would make those selections. On Friday the Clinton team announced unprecedentedly tough ethical standards for people working on the transition, and the President-elect is expected to follow this week with stricter rules yet for prospective Administration officials...