Word: perrier
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...prompted one of Bronfman's closest neighbors, former New York Governor Averell Harriman, to remark, "They really ought to be shot down." The bride ignored such interruptions. Wearing a striped chiffon dress and large white hat, she skipped spiritedly across the lawn after the ceremony. The guests sipped Perrier Jouët, a Seagram champagne. And amid all the display, a family spokesman described the bride's sapphire and diamond ring as "large but tasteful...
...Perrier desires Genvrain, the largest company in France's inefficient and fragmented dairy industry. The French government heartily approves Perrier's bid, which would both foil any foreign attempt to take over Genvrain and represent a major move toward consolidating France's 3,000 scattered dairy firms. Finance Minister Valéry Giscard d'Estaing indicates as much in a meeting with the publicity-shy strategist of Perrier's expansion, President Gustave Leven. Perrier makes a generous proposal for Genvrain: $56 a share for stock that was selling for $45 on the Bourse. Genvrain would...
...Suddenly, Perrier itself is attacked. Mysterious buyers corner 10% of its shares. On the theory of "Cherchez Pétranger," suspicion immediately falls on Unilever, the Anglo-Dutch giant whose own bid for Sapiem has been rejected after the French government persuaded Sapiem to resist any foreign liaisons. Unilever emphatically denies raiding Perrier, and so do other potential foreign rivals, notably Switzerland's Nestlé and the U.S.'s KraftCo, which are also reputed to have eyes on France's dairy industry...
...Enter Bel, France's largest cheese company, which may or may not have been behind the attack on Perrier to blunt its bid for Genvrain. Bel and Genvrain merge, and announce their combining as a fait accompli...
...state-run Crédit Agricole bank, acting as an interested go-between, buys up most of the Genvrain shares that had been offered to Perrier, and resells them in equal amounts to Perrier and Bel. Then, in a burst of amiability, the principals agree to share Genvrain. The agreement serves the government's purpose of keeping France's dairy industry free from foreign control, but represents rather less than a major gain for efficiency. The terms of the formula, originally proposed by the Ministry of Agriculture, were divulged last week: Perrier and Bel will each...