Word: olivetti
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Belgians were outraged when Italy's Carlo De Benedetti, 53, the aggressive chairman of Olivetti, announced plans last January to take control of Societe Generale de Belgique, their country's largest and most diversified company. Last week, with the help of Compagnie Financiere de Suez, a French merchant bank, they managed to stop him -- at least for the moment...
...Benedetti, who is chairman of Italy's Olivetti and holds stakes in companies ranging from the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house to the Buitoni Perugina food giant, managed to grab a major interest in La Generale -- also known as Belgium Inc. -- while no one was looking. His announcement last week that he had acquired an 18.6% share (market value: more than $300 million) largely through his Paris-based holding company, Cerus, prompted hurrahs in Italy's financial community. "It was a brilliant operation, a theatrical coup," said Fiat Chairman Giovanni Agnelli, and Italian newspapers bannered triumphant headlines like DE BENEDETTI...
...fall of La Generale's share price in the stock-market plunge made it a perfect target. Yet De Benedetti, an engineer by training who turned a moribund Olivetti into a global power in office computers, is unlikely to take apart La Generale as a ruthless raider might do. Instead, he aims to expand the company into a Continental conglomerate in preparation for the era beyond 1992, when the trade barriers between the twelve European Community countries are scheduled to be eliminated. That step will create a wide-open marketplace of some 320 million consumers, a powerful launching...
What has happened to the Italian renaissance, the new economic miracle? Observes Olivetti Chairman Carlo de Benedetti: "The party's over" -- although he hastens to add that "the party's over in the world economy." Italy may export truffles to France, but these days it also imports its eggs, milk and even its breadsticks. Worse, the cheap dollar means that Italian shoe and clothing exports are not selling very well in the U.S. Moreover, Italy's trade deficit this year, at more than $6.6 billion, is already twice the 1986 level...
Rumors of a shutdown sweep the Palazzo Mezzanotte trading floor as the opening bell fails to ring. Finally the dealing begins, one hour late. As Fiat, Olivetti and other stocks lose 10% of their value, trading is stopped in each...