Ian Robert Maxwell

A refugee from eastern Czechoslovakia, Ian Robert Maxwell (Ludvik Hoch; 1923-1991) eventually became one of the richest men in Great Britain and the head of a powerful publishing empire.

Robert Maxwell promised his wife Betty, "I shall win an MC. I shall recreate a family. I shall make my fortune. I shall be Prime Minister of England. And I shall make you happy until the end of my days." Joe Haines, in his book Maxwell (1988), suggests that only one of those promises--prime minister--remained unfilled in the early 1990s. That the promises could have been made at all in December of 1944 by a penniless, recently created officer of the British Army who was a refugee from the Carpathian mountains says a great deal about the character and career of Robert Maxwell.

Maxwell was born on June 10, 1923, in the small village of Solotvino in the Carpathian mountains of what was then eastern Czechoslovakia. This was in an area sometimes known as Ruthenia that was variously held by Austria, Hungary, Ukraine, and, most recently, the Soviet Union. His birth name was Ludvik Hoch, and his parents were part of the Orthodox Jewish community of Solotvino. Maxwell maintained that his early memories of the grinding poverty of Solotvino, an area dominated by forests and salt mines, influenced his socialist sympathies. He had limited early education, possibly only three years at a national school. By 1939 he joined the Czech resistance to fight Nazi Germany, and after Czechoslovakia fell he made his way to France to join the French Foreign Legion and then be transferred to the 1st Czech Division of the French Army. When France fell to the Nazis in 1940, Maxwell was among 4,000 Czechs who made it to England. He joined the British Army and eventually changed his name to Ian Robert Maxwell. He rose from private to the rank of captain, eventually winning the Military Cross for heroism.

At the conclusion of World War II in 1945, Captain Robert Maxwell, by this time an accomplished linguist, was assigned to Berlin. By 1946 he was involved in the publishing of Der Berliner and in the process of re-establishing the postwar German economy. As a result of these experiences, he gained an understanding of international business, publishing enterprises, and the new importance of scientific research and publishing. By 1947 Maxwell had returned to England and became instrumental in disseminating scientific and technical information in journals and magazines. By 1951 Maxwell held the controlling interest in Pergamon Press, a publishing concern dedicated to scientific journals, textbooks, and papers.

Pergamon Press became the basis for Maxwell's fortune. He gained a virtual monopoly on scientific publication, especially Soviet scientific publications, at that point when such publication became of critical importance. During the 1950s he was concerned with other business ventures and was particularly involved with the trading concerns of Dr. Kurt Waller. Maxwell also purchased Simpkin Marshall, an almost defunct wholesale book selling company. The eventual failure of this company added to the controversy surrounding Maxwell, since many of his critics blamed the failure of the concern on his aggressiveness.

In 1958 Maxwell entered British politics. He joined the Labour Party, and in 1959 stood as candidate for Parliament from Buckingham, finally winning in 1964. Maxwell presented an anomaly as a parliamentary member of the Labour Party. He was an enormously wealthy man in the party of the working class. He was an employer who was sometimes at odds with the trade unions seeking to represent the party of trade unionism. No one could doubt his history of poverty and hard work, nor could his efforts on the battlefield fighting for Britain be diminished. But the idea of a rich foreigner representing working-class Britain provided severe paradoxes.

Despite Maxwell's pledge to become prime minister, his political career lacked the spectacular success of his business career. He never achieved distinction in Parliament, his main achievements coming from clean air legislation and a reform of the parliamentary food services. While he fully participated in his party's arguments and questions, adding to vigorous parliamentary debate, he never became a cabinet minister. He lost his seat in the election of 1970 and did not return to Parliament, even though his continued career in publishing and journalism kept him at the center of British political life.

By 1969 Maxwell was mired in a bitter dispute over the resale of Pergamon Press. This was ultimately resolved through a series of civil suits, but it tarnished Maxwell's reputation and held back the advancement of his publishing interests. Despite these setbacks, in 1981 Maxwell acquired the British Printing Corporation, at the time the largest printer in Britain but a company that had serious personnel and equipment problems. In 1984 Maxwell purchased his first newspapers, the Mirror Group, including the Daily Mirror. This launched his involvement in journalism.

Throughout the 1980s Maxwell's interest in and influence on journalism increased. His efforts clearly revitalized the Mirror Group, and he sought to update the technological side of British journalism. He also invested heavily in British cable television, had a controlling interest in European MTV (Music TeleVision), and invested well over $500 million in publishing and journalism interests in the United States, chiefly the Macmillan book company and Official Airline Guides. The Maxwell Communication Corporation was the second largest printing concern in the United States. The chief executive serving under his chairman father was son Kevin (born 1959).

In 1990 Maxwell added three U.S. tabloids to his holdings--the Globe, Sun, and National Enquirer, copies of all three sold exclusively in supermarkets. Then in March 1991 he bought the zesty New York City tabloid the Daily News. Meanwhile he launched the European, an English-language weekly designed to cover all of Europe, despite a mounting debt in his media corporation.

Robert Maxwell was also devoted to his family. He and his French-born wife Elisabeth had seven children, most of whom worked for his companies. He expected his children to make their own way without benefit of inheritance. On November 11, 1991, Maxwell died at sea off the Canary Islands, falling overboard from his yacht, Lady Ghislaine. He was buried on the Mount of Olives in Israel.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Maxwell

Ronald Perelman

Corporate raiders with billion-dollar war chests and the affinity for deal-making are taking on an increasing presence in the news of the day, but few have moved up the takeover ladder as quickly and as aggressively as Ronald Perelman, chairman of Revlon, one of the world's best-known cosmetic firms. The cigar-smoking Perelman, who would prefer to remain unrecognized, inconspicuous, and generally forgotten about, has fought a losing battle in his efforts to remain out of the public spotlight. And buying Revlon in 1985 for $1.8 billion in cash quickly pushed him into the ranks of the nation's foremost takeover giants, with the likes of T. Boone Pickens and Carl Icahn. Headline-making was suddenly the province of a man who insists he is just "an operations guy." But despite his protestations of modesty, Perelman has earned a reputation as a hard-bargaining investor who is tenacious in his quest for new companies. The pillows in his office sum up the story. One reads, "Love me, love my cigar." The other, "No guts, no glory."

In recent years, Perelman, whose net worth is estimated by Fortune magazine at $300 million, has made three nearly simultaneous bids to acquire giant companies: Transworld, a hotel chain and food vendor; food processor CPC International; and Gillette, the razor and toiletries company. His strategy is to buy a company and then keep only those parts of the operation that are particularly attractive to him. His practice of stripping off operations and streamlining what he considers to be overdiversified companies has won him the title of the Wall Street Stripper. In slimming down companies, he gets back much of what he spent to acquire it, and he is left with a leaner, more profitable business that he is interested in running. Perelman's critics say he is a greenmailer because of the money he pockets from making passes at companies; for example, he reaped a $94 million profit from his unsuccessful 1986 bid for CPC International, according to Fortune. Perelman maintains, however, that he is interested in companies to purchase them, and not to make money on their stock. One high-ranking executive who was involved in a deal with Perelman described him in New York magazine as "an opportunist...in the nicest sense." In 1984, Perelman purchased Consolidated Cigar for $124 million from Gulf + Western. And Martin Davis, chairman of Gulf + Western, told New York that Perelman is "astute enough to know what will work and what won't."

Perelman's management finesse first began to take shape when he was growing up in Philadelphia as the first of two sons in an upper-class family. His father, Raymond Perelman, owns Belmont Industries, a metal-fabricating firm. As early as elementary school, the younger Perelman had his first brushes with business while sitting in on board meetings of his father's company. He attended the Haverford School outside of Philadelphia and then enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania, where he received a B.A. in economics. He later received an MBA from the Wharton School of Finance. For 12 years, he apprenticed with his father's business, learning the art of buying, selling, and running companies. For example, Fortune magazine reported, Perelman sold a galvanizing firm and a shoe manufacturer, then purchased a small, financially troubled bank that he brought back to life and resold. Perelman's father told Fortune magazine that his son provided input in many of the elder's corporate purchasing decisions. "When Ronnie was a boy, whenever I was thinking of making an acquisition, we would drive out to look at the company and discuss the pluses and minuses together," the elder Perelman recalled.

Ronald Perelman left the family business in 1978, and that same year took the advice of a business broker and purchased for $2 million about 40 percent of a jewelry retailer and distributor. The company, Cohen-Hatfield Industries, proved to be the project on which Perelman would cut his teeth. He sold off most of the company's assets, retaining the reliable and profitable wholesale watch distribution business. By selling off the assets that were not performing as Perelman wanted, he was able to use the company as a shell to purchase other companies. In two years, he used Cohen-Hatfield to purchase MacAndrews & Forbes, a troubled company that supplied licorice extract and chocolate. By finding new sources of licorice in areas more stable than world licorice suppliers Iran and Afghanistan, Perelman was able to turn a faltering company into a profitable business. Then MacAndrews---once the object of an acquisition---was in turn able to provide the cash flow Perelman needed to finance other buys, such as the $105 million purchase in 1983 of Technicolor---the company that gives vivid color to many Hollywood films. At the time, nobody wanted to buy Technicolor, although it had been on the market for years. But with typical style, Perelman sold off five divisions of the company and has turned Technicolor into a winner. He also purchased Consolidated Cigar and a videocassette duplicator named Video Corporation of America.

Perelman's run at Revlon began through his 1985 purchase of a controlling interest in Pantry Pride, a Florida-based chain of supermarkets. He purchased the supermarket chain for $60 million, but at the time, Perelman was not trying to buy Revlon, New York magazine reported. Pantry Pride, however, wanted to buy Revlon. The beauty company, once the nation's leading maker of cosmetics under founder Charles Revson, had faded over the years in the face of stiff competition from other beauty companies and waning enthusiasm from department stores, who had lost a good deal of interest in stocking the product line. Said one industry consultant in 1987 in Fortune: "Revlon was the No. 1 cosmetic in any store no matter how you measured it. Now it's not even a good No. 3 in the mass-market outlets like drugstores, and it's getting slaughtered in department stores."

Supermarket chain Pantry Pride provided the cash that Perelman needed to purchase Revlon. By selling off the grocery chain's assets, Perelman was able to gather together much of the $1.8 billion he needed to buy Revlon's outstanding shares. But it was not an easy purchase. A takeover fight ensued, during which Perelman announced that he would keep Revlon's cosmetic business but rid the company of other divisions, including those that sold such products as Tums and hospital diagnostic aids, New York magazine reported. To fight Perelman, Revlon announced that its management would take the company private and give chairman Michel Bergerac continued control. But after considerable court battles that went all the way to the Delaware Supreme Court, Perelman won his bid for the cosmetics firm. His next challenge was to turn it around.

After 20 months of owning Revlon, Perelman took the company private in July 1987, vowing to return it to its former prominence on the department store beauty aisles. The company faces weighty competition from high-priced brands such as Estee Lauder as well as drugstore brands like Cover Girl. Both Noxell and Maybelline lead Revlon at drug and discount stores. Department stores, whose cosmetics buyers had discontinued buying Revlon products, once relegated the center aisles to other brands, leaving Revlon behind. But through Perelman's efforts, department stores are giving the brand a second chance. After becoming chairman of Revlon in 1986, Perelman went knocking on the doors of department store heads, trying to persuade them to give Revlon the exposure it once had. Since those visits, the number of department stores carrying Revlon products rose by 1,000 in one year, Fortune reported. In Bloomingdale's prestigious Manhattan store, Revlon now can be found in the main aisle. Bloomingdale's chairman Marvin Traub told Fortune: "Revlon is becoming a strong competitor in department stores."

Perelman's makeover of Revlon doesn't stop at department stores. He spent $500 million to purchase Max Factor and the cosmetics and fragrance lines of Yves Saint Laurent. He also directed that Revlon lipsticks and nail enamels be reformulated and discarded old packaging in favor of upscale bottles and boxes targeted at the well-heeled department store shopper. To gloss up the company's image, Perelman hired famed beauty photographer Richard Avedon. The photographer heated up magazine pages with print ads of seductive women and the tag line, "The world's most unforgettable women wear Revlon."

Most of all, Perelman wants the Revlon name to once again be synonymous with the beauty business---an area he feels it strayed much too far away from. On his third day at Revlon, he discovered a bronze head of founder Revson gathering dust in a closet and quickly restored it to a prominent post in Revlon's New York City offices. "Charles Revson not only founded this company, he founded the beauty industry." Perelman told Fortune. "He had to have been a fantastic individual, and he deserves recognition. Prior management tried to hide his involvement." Perelman added in New York magazine that he has established a pattern for acquiring companies that he intends to follow. "I think we've defined a strategy of seeking out companies with certain basic common characteristics," Perelman said. "They're all basic cash-flow generators, where the cash flow is free from fad, fashion or styles. We won't look at fashion companies. We won't look at retailing chains like Macy's. We won't look at anything that's high-tech oriented or fad-oriented."

Perelman's personal life has been nearly as colorful as his acquisitions. His first marriage to Faith Golding---a member of a wealthy New York City real estate family---fell apart after she learned Perelman was having an affair with a local florist. Golding sued for divorce on grounds of adultery and hired private detectives to trail the couple. Details of the detectives' observations were listed in an affadavit in the divorce filing, including secret breakfasts between Perelman and the florist. New York magazine reported that Golding discovered the affair when the bill for an expensive Bulgari bracelet arrived at their home---a bracelet that was not for Golding. After a messy divorce, Perelman's relationship with the florist ended.

In January 1984, he met entertainment reporter and former gossip columnist Claudia Cohen. One year to the day after they were introduced, Perelman and Cohen were married, and the two held a reception several months later at the trendy Palladium nightclub in Manhattan. Entertainment was by the Pointer Sisters, and scores of prominent guests including Elizabeth Taylor attended the event. But despite all the glitz that has surrounded him, Perelman insists he is a private person. He is a member of the Orthodox Fifth Avenue Synagogue, and in keeping with strict Jewish tradition, does not work on Saturday. While Perelman is tight-mouthed about his plans for the future, many speculate that another multimillion dollar acquisition will soon catch his eye. Perelman, 46, replied in Fortune: "I'm still a young man. We'll see."

Carl C. Icahn

Carl C. Icahn


one of the most feared "corporate raiders" of the 1980s and 1990s, Carl Icahn helped to define an era of United States economic and cultural history that was characterized by the notion of unparalleled acquisition. Yet whether successful or not, Icahn's numerous takeover attempts always proved profitable as he moved from target to target.
Education of a Corporate Raider
Icahn was born into a comfortable middle-class family in Queens, New York on February 16, 1936; his father was a lawyer and a cantor, his mother a schoolteacher. Following his graduation from Princeton University in 1957 with a B.A. in philosophy Icahn briefly attended medical school at New York University, but decided to switch to a career in finance. In 1960 he hired on with the Dreyfus Corporation in New York City and served an apprenticeship as a broker until 1963. That year he moved over to Tessel, Patrick & Co. (also in New York) where he worked as an options manager. In 1964 Icahn left Tessel, Patrick for Gruntal & Co. In 1968 he struck out on his own forming Icahn & Co., of which he was the chairman and president.
By 1976 Icahn was already on the takeover path. That year he and customers of Icahn & Co. managed to acquire 25 percent of the stock of the Highland Capital Corporation. However the takeover was averted when Highland's chairman, Walter Scheuer, and others bought the shares from Icahn. This was one of the earliest instances where Icahn was involved in the practice of "greenmail," in which he was paid off to leave a company alone. In the 1980s this would become a lucrative method for many corporate raiders.
In 1979 Icahn was involved in a proxy fight with the Tappan Co. As the largest shareholder in Tappan, Icahn sought to have himself installed as the company's director. In a lawsuit Tappan contended Icahn's proxy material contained false statements while a counter suit initiated by Icahn charged Tappan with the same thing regarding its own proxy material. For Icahn, this was all merely a prelude of things to come.
The "Go-Go" '80s
The 1980 election of Ronald Reagan to the presidency along with a Republican majority in the United States Senate (which the party held until 1987) ushered in the so-called "go-go" years of the U.S. economy--an "anything goes" attitude that took its cue from the laissez-faire pro-business policy of the administration. On Wall Street it became the era of the junk bond, the leveraged buyout, the hostile takeover and the corporate raider with men such as Ivan Boesky, T. Boone Pickens, Michael Milliken, and Icahn dominating the financial pages.
By 1981 Icahn was already spinning an intricate financial web. In addition to Icahn & Co. he was chairman of the Bayswater Realty & Capital Corporation, through which he sought to gain control of other companies via the Bayswater Acquisitions Group. In 1982 he led a group of investors who controlled 30 percent of the stock of the Chicago retail chain Marshall Field, and sought to take over the company. The attempt was ultimately thwarted but not before Icahn had forced two increases in the bid offer.
Icahn also went after lesser known but lucrative companies whose stocks were undervalued. In 1982 he acquired 30 percent of the shares of Dan River, Inc., a Virginia textile mill, forcing yet another battle that spilled over into the better part of 1983. It was also in 1983 that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave the Bayswater Realty & Capital Corporation a slap on the wrist for its maneuvers in the Marshall Field incident.
In 1984 Icahn completed the successful takeover of ACF Industries, which specialized in rolling stock and shipping. Icahn subsequently became ACF chairman and CEO.
The next company in Icahn's sights was Phillips Petroleum, which had already staved off a takeover attempt by T. Boone Pickens. However, in March 1985 Icahn suddenly decided to drop his takeover bid. At the time it was estimated he made between $50 and $60 million from the attempt. From Phillips Icahn quickly moved to the tire manufacturer Uniroyal. In May 1985 he agreed to a leveraged buyout of his 10 percent of Uniroyal's shares that netted him $16 million plus another $5 million for expenses and cooperation. The era of successful greenmail was now in full swing. Interestingly, Icahn was also paid $41 million by Uniroyal rival, B.F. Goodrich, to avoid a takeover.

TWA Boss


In August 1985 Icahn initiated his boldest acquisition--TWA. He did so initially with union backing as he and his group seemed a far better alternative than the despised Frank Lorenzo, head of Texas Air which was also bidding on the airline. Icahn acquired 52 percent of TWA's stock and became chairman of its board of directors and company CEO (in 1986). With TWA in his shopping cart, and following a little greenmail speculation with Ivan Boesky regarding the media company Gulf and Western, Icahn next went after media conglomerate Viacom. However this attempted 1986 takeover proved to be neither successful nor immediately profitable for him. By late 1986 the bloom was off the Wall Street rose as the SEC began investigating some of the practices of the arbitragers. In November 1986 Icahn himself was under investigation for his TWA acquisition.
While fellow corporate raiders experienced stiff penalties for their business dealings (Boesky eventually pled guilty and Milliken went to jail), Icahn was cleared by the SEC for his TWA actions and in 1988 purchased another 23 percent of the company's shares. He wasn't through yet with TWA. In September 1988 he won approval from a majority of the company's independent shareholders to take the company private. By this time, however, he had fallen out with the union that had initially supported his acquisition if TWA.
Icahn was also the largest shareholder in Texaco, with 17.3 percent of the company's stock. As was his style he was not a passive shareholder, and at times his involvement with Texaco grew acrimonious. However in June 1989 Icahn suddenly sold his stock for $2.07 billion- -the most expensive block trade in Wall Street history. Icahn's profit, including dividends, was estimated to be more than $800 million. Meanwhile TWA, after two years of profit, suddenly nose dived causing the St. Louis business community, where the airline is headquartered, to worry. As for Icahn, he was after a new target: USXCorp, formerly known as United States Steel.
He never did acquire USX and in 1992 TWA filed for bankruptcy, greatly tarnishing Icahn's image. However, he managed to pull off an exit deal that allowed him to purchase blocks of discounted TWA tickets which he then sold through his Internet company, Lowestfare.com.
The Fight for RJR Nabisco
If anything the 1990s, under President Clinton and a Republican-controlled Congress, were more go-go than the 1980s had been. Between 1995 and 2000 Icahn, initially with Bennett LeBow, engaged in four proxy fights to take over RJR Nabisco and force it to split into two companies, which most analysts believed would be worth billions of dollars to investors. Though unsuccessful Icahn eventually made $600 million for his trouble. Eventually RJR and Nabisco did divide into two companies, but not before tobacco litigation had seriously affected the deal.
It was in the midst of this deal that Icahn suffered one of his biggest setbacks. In June 1997 he gained control of the board of directors of Marvel Comics. Marvel had declared bankruptcy in 1996 and Icahn's goal was to put the company back on its feet. However Marvel's banks and other creditors were opposed to his plan and defeated it.
After ending his relationship with RJR Nabisco, Icahn set his sights on retailer J.C.Penney, the Sands hotel and casino in Atlantic City, and General Motors. He caused a stir in late 2000 when it was revealed he had been purchasing GM stock, but as of early 2001 Icahn had made no move against the company.
Icahn also purchased a thoroughbred breeding operation, Foxfield, that has had 17 stakes winners through the 2000 racing season. He is founder of the Carl C. Icahn Foundation and the Carl C. Icahn Program for the Prevention of Child Abuse.