F. Ross Johnson

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Frederick Ross Johnson (born December 13, 1931 in Winnipeg , Manitoba , Canada , † December 29, 2016 in Jupiter , Florida , United States ) was a Canadian manager . He gained fame as the first initiator and symbol of the aggressive corporate takeovers that led to the locust debate.

Life

F. Ross Johnson was born December 13, 1931 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the only child of a salesman and accountant. After graduating from a military college , he studied at the University of Manitoba . He received a Bachelor of Commerce degree there in 1952 , followed by a Master of Business Administration (MBA) graduation from the University of Toronto in 1956.

His professional career began with a job as an accountant at General Electric in Montreal , followed by a sales position in Toronto . In 1963 he moved to the Canadian department store chain T. Eaton Co. (including The Core Shopping Center ). This was followed by a management position at equipment manufacturer General Steel Works Inc. In 1971, Johnson took a position at the Canadian subsidiary of Standard Brands Inc. , a New York-based manufacturer of food and alcoholic beverages. There he rose in 1976 to managing director of the parent company. In 1981 he negotiated a merger with Nabisco Inc. , another large food company. From an initial deputy position after the merger to form Nabisco Brands, he rose to their CEO position in 1984 . In 1985 the company merged with the cigarette group RJ Reynolds Industries Inc. and became RJR Nabisco , with 135,000 employees, 250 production facilities and F. Ross Johnson at the top.

Between October and November 1988, F. Ross Johnson initiated the hostile takeover of his employer, RJR Nabisco. He was supported by Shearson Lehman Hutton ( Lehman Brothers ) and Salomon Brothers . The result was the most expensive takeover battle in the history of the US economy, from which Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) emerged victorious with their bid of $ 24.88 billion. F. Ross Johnson received the largest severance payment in history at $ 53 million. From then on he was considered a symbol of such excesses of private equity .

After leaving RJR, he ran his own investment and management company, RJM Group Inc. , based in Atlanta . Until he resigned in March 2009, he was chairman of AuthentiDate Holding Corp. , a US public company and a member of the boards of directors of several companies including Bentley Pharmaceuticals and Power Corporation of Canada .

F. Ross Johnson was married with two children. He died of pneumonia in his Florida home .

public perception

In December 1988, F. Ross Johnson was on the cover of Time magazine as well as the subject of the cover story.

In addition to news media coverage such as in the New York Times , Wall Street Journal , Die Welt or the Associated Press , the role of F. Ross Johnson in the American economy has been described and critically assessed in a number of specialist publications.

The takeover of RJR Nabisco by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. in 1988 formed the basis for the bestseller The Nabisco Story. A company is looted by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar (original title: Barbarians at the Gate ) as well as the eponymous Golden Globe award-winning film by Glenn Jordan from 1993. The character of F. Ross Johnson is played there by James Garner .

In the book Winston-Salem: A History by Frank V. Tursi, a chapter deals with F. Ross Johnson under the heading The Most Hated Man in Town .

In 1986 he was awarded the Canada Awards for Excellence .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f James R. Hagerty: Former RJR Nabisco CEO F. Ross Johnson Dies at Age 85. In: The Wall Street Journal . December 31, 2016, accessed January 23, 2017 .
  2. ^ A b c d e Robert D. Herhey Jr .: F. Ross Johnson, Symbol of '80s Corporate Excess, Dies at 85. In: The New York Times (NYT). December 31, 2016, accessed January 22, 2017 .
  3. ^ A b History of the RjR-Nabisco takeover. In: The New York Times (NYT). December 31, 2016, accessed January 22, 2017 .
  4. ^ A b Tony Griffiths: Corporate Catalyst: A Chronicle of the (Mis) Management of Canadian Business . 1st edition. John Wiley & Sons, 2012, ISBN 978-1-118-15286-7 , pp. 52 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  5. ^ A b John J. O'Connor: Review / Television; Those Good Old Takeover Days. In: The New York Times (NYT). March 18, 1993. Retrieved January 22, 2017 .
  6. ↑ a b Anette Dowideit: When the age of financial jugglers began. In: The world. November 30, 2008, accessed January 22, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Week Cover. In: Time . December 5, 1988. Retrieved January 24, 2017 .
  8. ↑ Kamal Ghosh Ray: Mergers and Acquisitions: Strategy, Valuation and Integration . PHI, 2010, ISBN 978-81-203-3975-0 , pp. 538 ff . ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  9. ^ Walter Adams, James W. Brock: Antitrust Economics on Trial: Dialogue in New Learning . 1st edition. Princeton University Press, 1991, ISBN 978-0-691-00391-7 , pp. 111 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  10. ↑ Thomas A. Jesch: Private Equity Investments: Economic, legal and tax framework from an investor's point of view . 1st edition. Gabler Press, 2004, ISBN 978-3-409-11796-8 , pp. 49 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  11. ^ Bryan Burrough, John Helyar, Rainer Schmidt (translator): The Nabisco story. A company is looted . 1st edition. Ullstein, 1991, ISBN 978-3-550-06431-9 , pp. 49 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  12. ^ Frank V Tursi: Winston-Salem: A History . 1st edition. John F. Blair, 1994, ISBN 978-0-89587-115-2 , pp. 276 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
personal data
SURNAME Johnson, F. Ross
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Johnson, Frederick Ross
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Canadian manager
DATE OF BIRTH December 13, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Winnipeg , Manitoba , Canada
DATE OF DEATH December 29, 2016
Place of death Jupiter (Florida) , Florida , United States