Though Europe has had a surge of big hostile takeovers in the last two years, the takeover of Mannesmann makes history on several fronts besides sheer size.
Mannesmann's recent acquisition by Britain's Vodafone AirTouch Germany's first big hostile takeover is a harbinger.
Yet disappointingly for anyone titillated by the gothic, probably to Francis' thinking Beelzebub more closely resembles some big hostile bully toting a fat wallet - all swollen with ill-gotten banknotes and no human conscience to speak of.
But when penalties are introduced for slacking, worker efficiency is enhanced, reducing shirking by half.Joseph Flom, a legendary lawyer who participated in many of the big hostile takeovers of the 1970s and 1980s, died at the age of 87.
Certainly, the big, hostile hospital where she was born, an hour from home, makes me shudder when I pass it on the highway.
It has a solid balance-sheet, and there are some attractive synergies and cost savings to be had.But big, hostile bids are not the Anglo-Dutch company's style.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The terrorist attacks in Mumbai occurred as India and Pakistan, two big, hostile and nuclear-armed nations, were delicately moving toward improved relations with the encouragement of the United States and in particular the incoming Obama administration.
It is the biggest hostile takeover ever attempted, and it has electrified Germany, a country where hostile bids have been rare and successful ones almost nonexistent.
At the time, the NatWest was three times the size of RBS, the deal was seven times the size of the previous biggest hostile takeover in the U.K. No hostile takeover of a major European bank had ever been successful.
THIS week, in both America and Europe, corporate bosses locked horns as the biggest hostile bids in years twisted and turned their way towards a denouement.
