Página 26 - Coordinación de Servicios de Información

in meatpacking, sports equipment and drugs. But by 1969 several
hugue companies, such as ITI, saw their stocks drop by as much
as 50%;
4) That set the stage for the corporate raiders of the 19805, who
bought weak companies at rock-bottom prices and sold off the
best parts at killer profits. At !he same time the financial-services
industry had evolved into an inventor and agressive marketer of
financial tools.
Accountants, consultants, bankers and lawyers stood ready to fan
!he next merger flame into a bonfire;
5) Their chance carne in the mid-1990s. Booming worldwide mar–
kets convinced them, and company directors, that they needed to
bulk up not only to compete, but to meet Wall Street expectations
of double-d igit growth . Deregulation in telecoms and banking got
the merger game going, and it spread to pharma{:euticals and au–
tos, media and entertai ment.
Few of these mergers succeeded, and it was recently found that
only 12 percent of 160 mergers in 1995 and 1996 managed to grow
fas ter than their industry rivals in their first three years of opera–
tion. On average, revenues fell by 4 percent. "This wave looks like
a carbon copy of before, just many times bigger", said Mark Sirower,
an economist and author of The Synergy Trap. People make the
same mistakes again and again ."
(Texto basado sobre el artículo, "The C iants Stumble" de K. Lowry Miller, en
Newsweek, julio 8, 2002)
EJERCICIO
Sobre "MEGAFUSIONS";
VOCABULARIO:
Explique, en español, el significado de las siguientes palabras o
expresiones.
Stumble unravelling boost revenues bewildering
Unbridled faith rock-bottom prices flawl ess
Booming wo rldwide markets to bulk up fledgling
24 English for Economists