Word: sarnoffs
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Under David Sarnoff, the Army Reserve officer who helped found the firm back in 1919, the Radio Corporation of America grew into a giant largely by feeding on itself: it manufactured radio and TV sets, then created a market for them by beaming programs over its NBC network subsidiary. "The General," 77 and ailing, is still board chairman, but RCA is now run by his son, President Robert W. Sarnoff, 50, who has chosen to move the firm into other fields. The younger Sarnoff, who has already engineered RCA's long-reach acquisitions of Hertz Corp. and the publishing...
...latest step in that direction is a proposed merger with New York-based St. Regis Paper Co., a deal that has already brought RCA plenty of static from Wall Street analysts. The get-together, involving $630 million in RCA stock, was negotiated by Bob Sarnoff and St. Regis' longtime chairman, Roy K. Ferguson, 74, but still must be approved by directors and shareholders of both companies. If it goes through, the acquisition of the $721.7 million-a-year paper company would put RCA, the 27th largest U.S. firm, as recently as four years ago, within striking distance...
Once lightly regarded as being merely the boss's son, Bob Sarnoff is now speaking with the master's voice. RCA's president for the past three years and its chief executive officer since last Jan. 1, he has made the company's marketing operations more efficient, reshuffled its management hierarchy and trimmed production and inventories to help combat eroding profit margins. His efforts have paid off. Last year RCA showed profits of $147.5 million on sales of $3 billion. Both figures are running higher...
...ability, recognized even by his critics, with rare aggressiveness - sometimes too rare for his employers to stomach. A longtime star in the management-con ulting firm of Booz, Allen & Hamil ton, Burns presided over a study of RCA's marketing problems that impressed RCA's Chairman David Sarnoff to the extent that in 1957 he hired Burns as president. The mutual admiration did not last. Under Burns, RCA became deeply involved in the computer making business, and in one year took a $100 million loss. Only in 1969 is the company's computer division likely...
Though he has a staff of managers and other aides, Hope himself is the key to the whole enterprise. More than one corporation boss has suggested that Bob is supremely capable of running any kind of major business. RCA Board Chairman David Sarnoff says that he is even slicker at the negotiating table than on the air. Richard Berg, who produced Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theater for TV, says he "has a very crisp approach and a totally organized mind. He's not an easy man to please; you know he's measuring, testing...