"Bruce Holland Rogers - An Eye For Acquisitions" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rogers Bruce Holland)

An Eye For Acquisitions
by Bruce Holland Rogers
This story copyright 1995 by Bruce Holland Rogers. This copy was created for Jean Hardy's personal
use. All other rights are reserved. Thank you for honoring the copyright.

Published by Seattle Book Company, www.seattlebook.com.

* * *


Leonard Vriner felt it in his bones, that old magnetic attraction that he hadn't felt in such a very long
time. At first he dismissed it. The mergers and acquisitions game as he used to play it was dead, and
there just weren't any easy pickings left to be exploited in a corporate raid. But the more he talked to
Moscar├│n, the more sure he felt of the prospect: perhaps there really was one last plum to pluck.
"I can't believe you've never heard of greenmail, Mr. Moscar├│n," Vriner said to the man he'd just met
at the thousand-dollar-a-plate political fund-raiser. "Surely, as CEO of... What was it again?"
"WWW Service and Supply."
"Yes." Vriner filed the company name securely in his mind. "As CEO, surely you've thought of how
you would defend against an unfriendly stock tender?"
"I don't think we'd have a problem."
"Ah," Vriner said, sensing that the plum might not be so ripe. Too bad. "You're closely held."
"Not at all," Moscar├│n said. "We have no majority shareholders, and our shares trade on the
exchange, but our many shareholders want a board and officers who know our business. They are
exceptionally loyal."
Vriner was careful not to laugh aloud. How often had he heard that from directors and CEOs? But
greed was a persuader that had never failed him. Shareholders could always be bought.
"And what does WWW Service and Supply do, exactly?" Vriner asked.
"We are," Moscar├│n said with a thin smile, "diversified. And becoming more so all the time." The
man's eyes were brown with greenish tint, the color of pond scum. "But you were telling me, Mr. Vriner,
how you made your fortune. You said you have an eye for acquisitions. Perhaps that's a talent my
company can use down the road, when we're a bit more sophisticated."
"My talents aren't for sale," Vriner said, "and I haven't done that sort of deal for a long time."
"Still, it sounds interesting."
But Vriner changed the subject. Why let a naive target know the rules of the game?
And Vriner knew the game well. In the glory days of greenmail and the two-tier tender, in the decade
of boardroom bear hugs and bootstrap offers, he had learned the art of the corporate raid. Yes, he did
have an eye for acquisitions, a sixth sense for weakling companies that he could buy a taste of and then
devour like a shark. Or if he didn't devour, he bit so hard that company's management bid up their own
stock to make the deal too pricey, and then he'd sell his stake for a bundle. Win or lose, he made a lot of
money. Win or lose, he enjoyed the game.
But the game had changed. The SEC made tougher rules, and companies fought back with
self-tenders and the Pac-Man counterbid. Lock-up options and the crown jewel defense kept a
company's most profitable divisions out of a raider's reach. There were poison pills and blocking
preferreds, staggered boards and golden parachutes and all kinds of other shark repellents. For a while,
this had only made the game more challenging, but finally the defense had the edge, and the game wasn't
fun any more.
So rather than talk about mergers and acquisitions, Vriner asked Moscar├│n what he thought of the
Senator whose campaign they were supporting at this dinner.
"I've only recently begun to appreciate how useful a Senator can be," Moscar├│n said.
 "You sound as if you own him," Vriner joked. "It takes more than a thousand-dollar dinner to buy a