TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Bennett LeBow?

Re: Bennett LeBow?

David Wolff (dwolffxx@panix.com)
Sat, 11 Jun 2005 00:38:59 UTC

In article <telecom24.247.12@telecom-digest.org>,
<hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com> wrote:

> I was wondering about the background of this fellow.

> He is a wealthy businessman who has donated a great deal of money to
> colleges that have named stuff for him.

> According to Google, we had a post mentioning him in the bankruptcy
> proceedings of Western Union some years ago, and he was involved in
> that somehow.

> I get the impression he was kind of an aggressive corporate takeover
> artist.

> I was wondering if readers here had any opinions of him beyond the
> official history.

> Thanks.

> [public replies please]

All this is just my understanding, which could be off.

Bennett Lebow is/was a "corporate raider." He bought controlling
interest in various struggling companies, slashed expenditures to the
bone and thereby dooming the company (eg no more R&D, therefore no new
products). This resulted in good profits until all the current
customers left for competitors who had new products, at which point
the victim company could go into bankruptcy and be flushed down the
toilet.

Even companies such as Prime Computer, which survived his attempt to
buy them out, wasted huge amounts of time and money and were thereby
damaged. He hurt many, many people.

Thanks --

David,

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