Word: seagrams
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...totally certain. The deal still has to be accepted by stockholders of both Du Pont and Conoco. For two months a flock of suitors had fought over Conoco in a bidding battle as frenzied as an auction for a newly discovered Rembrandt. The other most serious contenders: cash-laden Seagram Co. of Canada, the world's largest liquor distiller, and Texaco, the third biggest U.S. oil firm...
...stock. The U.S. company fended off that threat by agreeing to trade its majority interest in the Hudson's Bay Oil and Gas Co. in return for the Conoco stock that Dome had acquired. At the same time, however, a more ominous Canadian challenger appeared. In late May, Seagram privately approached Conoco with an offer to buy 35% of the oil firm's shares. Edgar Bronfman, Seagram's adroit chairman, is currently on the hunt for new acquisitions with nearly $3 billion, gained largely from the sale of Texas oil and gas properties...
...Conoco's executives saw no way that a large oil concern could be rationally integrated into a liquor company. They also feared that Seagram would bring in new management. Around the oil firm's headquarters, employees bitterly joked that the motto of a combined Seagram-Conoco enterprise would be "Drink and Drive." Chairman Bailey quickly searched for an alternative merger partner, or so-called white knight, to thwart Seagram's plans. His first choice was Tulsa-based Cities Service, an oil company less than half Conoco's size but with exploration rights to 10 million...
...June 24, the day before the Conoco-Cities Service merger was to be announced, the phone rang in Bailey's office. The caller: Du Font's Jefferson. His question: "Is there any constructive role we can play?" Bailey thanked Jefferson for his concern about the Seagram bid, but replied that he was already negotiating with another company...
...Seagram Chairman Edgar Bronfman, 52, has been shopping for an acquisition in the U.S. since late last year, after having received $2.3 billion from the sale of a Seagram subsidiary, the Texas Pacific Oil Co., to Sun Co. of Pennsylvania. Earlier this month, Bronfman proposed a "friendly" bid to Conoco's chairman, Ralph Bailey, 57. Bronfman offered to pay $70 per share for 28.6 million Conoco shares, about one-third of the outstanding stock, though the company's shares were trading at only about $53. At the time, Seagram also promised that it would not seek full management...