It’s no secret that hostile takeovers got a bad name during the 1980s, even spawning a best seller, “Barbarians at the Gate.”
That may be why the hostile bids for Chrysler Corp., Younkers Inc. and Hills Department Store haven’t garnered the kind of support that takeover bids used to prompt.
The lack of support forced billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, former Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, et al., to abandon their bid for Chrysler last week.
Like the Chrysler offer, the bids for Des Moines-based Younkers, made in the name of Carson Pirie Scott & Co., and Hills Department Store, a regional discounter based in Massachusetts, haven’t attracted overwhelming support. But unlike Kerkorian, 36-year-old Mark Dickstein, who heads a New York-based vulture fund, is pressing his bids, despite fierce opposition from the companies.
A Des Moines matron has even coined the name for the book that could chronicle the effort: “Barbarian at the Throat.”
