Word: rohatyn
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...Rohatyn has put together some of the biggest deals in history. His first supermerger was in 1968, when he helped ITT acquire Hartford Insurance for $2 billion. Throughout the 1960s Rohatyn worked with ITT Chief Executive Harold Geneen, who built the company into one of the first powerful conglomerates and the ninth-largest industrial firm in the U.S. at the time. The ITT-Rohatyn deals included Continental Baking, maker of Hostess cakes, and Avis. In recent years Rohatyn's handiwork could be found in the Allied-Signal merger and the acquisition of Electronic Data Systems by General Motors. "Felix...
Born in Vienna in 1928, the only son of a brewer, Rohatyn fled the Nazis across Europe, North Africa and South America before landing in the U.S. in 1942. He began working at Lazard Freres in 1949 and twelve years later was named a general partner. In 1975 Rohatyn was one of the chief architects of the financial plan that saved New York City from bankruptcy...
...Today Rohatyn is trying to protect U.S. financial institutions from the dangers of what he considers to be poorly financed mergers and takeovers. The U.S. business system, he argues, is threatened by "excessive risk taking," speculation and the huge load of debt that most mergers create. "The climate of confidence required of our financial institutions is being eroded," he says...
...trillion corporate debt load is crippling, Rohatyn notes. Too much of the debt has been created by firms to finance takeovers with borrowed money. The result, he argues, is that many companies are particularly vulnerable to an economic downturn. In a recession, these corporations might be unable to make interest payments on their debt, and the result could be enormous loan defaults. Firms may already be unable to make needed investments in their basic business. Says Rohatyn: "At a time when we are trying to strengthen our important industries to make them more competitive, this weakens them by stripping away...
...first step in GE's courtship of RCA came about two months ago, Welch says, in an early-morning telephone call he made to Felix Rohatyn, a partner in the Lazard Freres investment banking firm and one of Wall Street's leading merger specialists (see following story). "Can you arrange for me to meet Brad?" asked Welch. The Brad in question was RCA Chairman Thornton Bradshaw, 68, who is a friend of Rohatyn's. In early November Rohatyn invited the two men to have a drink in his New York City apartment. They talked about the defense business...