Few carry their rigging of earnings to the extreme that Westec did, but their policy of seeking acquisitions makes it inevitable that they will attempt to keep their earnings and the price of their stock as high as they can.
A policy of expansion by acquisition was followed before World War I, so that the company came to operate the majority of the underground railway lines in and around London.
But David A. Drabkin, the deputy associate administrator of acquisition policy at the G.S.A., said that WorldCom had made significant strides in both areas.
"Over all, I think it's positive," Richard K. Sylvester, the vice president of acquisition policy at the Aerospace Industries Association, said of the new guidelines.
"In this particular case, the basis for finding that they lack responsibility goes to their accounting systems and to their business integrity and business ethics, which has not been improved since the initial allegations a year or so ago," said David A. Drabkin, the deputy associate administrator of acquisition policy at the General Services Administration.
Linda Baier, acting branch chief of acquisition policy, is one of Kotz's critics within the agency.
None of the big names is likely to play a white knight: doing so would either clash with their business models (IBM), or raise antitrust issues (Microsoft), or go against a policy of not making big acquisitions (SAP).The fight between Mr Ellison and Mr Conway could be as dramatic as last year's battle over the merger of two computer makers, Hewlett-Packard and Compaq.
"Last year, as part of our policy, we agreed to accelerate our rate of acquisition of small companies," he said.
New Home Construction Lending -- Policies and regulations have precipitously shrunk the availability of acquisition, development and construction financing to meet the future housing needs of America.
But the prosaic reality is that the success of Publicis has more to do with a policy of bold and well-judged acquisitions than with any special French cultural sensitivity.
