Takeover: A Tale of Loss, Change and Growth

The more familiar a story becomes-no matter how dramatic or tragic to begin with-it eventually begins to lose some of its interest and become commonplace. Ivan Boesky is yesterday's news. T. Boone Pickens' or Carl Icahn's plans to launch corporate takeovers are as often found on page 11 as page 1 of The Wall Street Journal. So, when I thought about recounting my experience in living through a corporate takeover, I wondered what interest there could be in my topic. I remembered a story about the late Jack Warner, head of Warner Brothers Studios, when he reviewed the script for the 1939 Bette Davis film, Dark Victory, which was about a woman losing her eyesight as a result of a brain tumor. (Ms. Davis would receive an Academy Award nomination for her performance.) After reading the script, Warner commented, "Who wants to see a dame go blind?" As I thought about my topic, I asked myself, "Who wants to hear a story about an executive losing his job in a takeover?" But, as in Dark Victory, perhaps it's all in how the story is told. Corporate acquisitions and mergers have become a powerful form of change in American business. I will make a few comments about the nature of that species of beast in the business kingdom, and then discuss one of them-the takeover-and what it's like to find yourself in the belly of that beast.