Big Deal [antikvár]

Introduction This is the millennium edition of Big Deal, prompted by the fact that many of the largest deals in history were announced this past year. This book is less about particular financial transactions and more about understanding the process our economy uses to adapt to change. The swirl of mystery and controversy surrounding the deal business continues to spiral. Recent big deals—MCI WorldCom-Sprint; Viacom-CBS; Chrysler-Daimler; BP-Amoco-ARCO; Travelers-Salomon-Citicorp; AT&T's deal frenzy; AOL-Netscape; SBC-UBS; Dean Witter-Morgan Stanley; NYNEX-Bell Atlantic; Wal-Mart-Asda—suggest a seismic shift in the structure of the world economy. We are at the dawn of a post-industrial age, a world of microchips, services, and outsourcing, and as part of it, the tide of globalization will continue to rise. The movement and restructuring of assets—mergers, acquisitions, and divestitures—are currents in this evolutionary whirlpool. Front-page news and trends are inexorably reflected in a deal. Indeed, growth by merger has been a part of American economic history since the coming of the Industrial Revolution. Over the years, the rationale, style, and intensity of successive merger waves have varied, and a rich assortment of knaves and fools, heroes and winners, have played cameo roles. Millions of people and thousands of companies have felt the reverberations. Change of this sort has been inherent in business since the Age of Discovery. But the image of the merger process is clouded by technical jargon and the premise that somehow the structure of