day. They've done everything wrong you might think of."
| MERGERS OF UNEQUALS Last week, Lucent CEO Henry Schacht called off his "merger of equals" with Alcatel because it wasn't shaping up to be all that equal. Here's a look at some trumpeted mergers and how they came to look more like plain old acquisitions. |
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| MERGER | QUOTE | WHAT WENT DOWN |
| Monsanto + Pharmacia Upjohn = Pharmacia April 2000 | "Under the terms of the merger-of-equals transaction ... Pharmacia Upjohn shareowners will receive 1.19 shares of the combined enterprise for each share of Pharmacia Upjohn." (Press release) | Pharmacia CEO Fred Hassan, left, kept the title; Monsanto CEO Robert Shapiro, right, was to be chairman for 18 months. He stuck it out for 10. |
| British Petroleum + Amoco = BP Amoco (now BP) Dec. 1998 | BP Chairman John Browne, left, called the deal "a superb alliance of equals with complementary strategic and geographical strengths." | Browne became CEO of BP Amoco. BP's Rodney Chase and Amoco's Bill Lowrie became deputy CEOs and presidents. Soon, Lowrie and other Amoco execs were out. Chase told the Wall Street Journal: "We never said this merger would be gentle." This May the firm changed its name back to BP. |
| Daimler-Benz + Chrysler = DaimlerChrysler Nov. 1998 | "We had the ability to choose our favorite partners," said Chrysler's Robert Eaton, right, at the merger announcement. "It would be a merger of equals." | Daimler's Juergen Schrempp, left, and Eaton became co-chairmen and co-CEOs of the company; Eaton left in March 2000. In October 2000, Schrempp told the Financial Times: "If I had gone and said Chrysler would be a division, everybody on their side would have said, 'There is no way we'll do a deal.'" |
| Citicorp + Travelers = Citigroup Oct. 1998 | "The stockholders of Citicorp and Travelers Group ... voted overwhelmingly to approve the combination of the two companies in a merger of equals to form Citigroup." (Press release) | Citicorp co-chairman John Reed, right, retired in April 2000 and Travelers' Sanford Weill, left, became sole chairman. Weill told the Wall Street Journal: "We stopped counting who comes from where." |
| BankAmerica + NationsBank = Bank of America Sept. 1998 | "Combined, this merger of equals will provide unprecedented capabilities and convenience for individuals, businesses and corporate clients across the nation and around the world." (Press release) | NationsBank's Hugh McColl, left, became chairman and CEO; BankAmerica's David Coulter, right, became president. Three weeks later, Coulter was gone. By April 2000, only four BankAmerica representatives remained on the 17-member board. |
| Sources:Companies listed, news reports. | ||
