Telecom Italia is seven times the size of Olivetti, yet Colaninno had the brio to barge in with a hostile v60.4 billion bid, which will be partly financed with the biggest bond issue in history. During the takeover attempt, it looked like TI might find a white knight in the form of Deutsche Telekom, but regulatory and political hurdles got in the way. Italian shareholders weren’t pleased that the German government balked at reducing its 70 percent stake in DT. And anyway, the German deal depended on the value of DT’s sinking shares, whereas Colannino’s offer involved a nice chunk of cash. In the end, all but one of IT’s core shareholders–Credit Suisse–had agreed to back Olivetti. Credit Suisse was TI’s adviser in its defense.
The almost unanimous support surprised foreign investors and a lot of Italian analysts, too. Roberto Colaninno says simply, “I’m happy.” No wonder. Since the mid-1990s, his company has gone from being a typewriter maker to owner of the fourth largest telecom company in Europe. Now all Colaninno has to do is restructure his prize (layoffs loom), start paying d own all that debt–and prove that the right guy won.
MALAYSIADisaster, But No Deaths
It could have been another “Titanic.” The Sun Vista cruise ship, with 1,104 tourists on board, sank last Friday off the coast of Malaysia after a fire in the engine room could not be contained. There were plenty of lifeboats on the ship, and all were rescued.
INDIABack on Track
Former Congress Party head Sonia Gandhi may not go quietly. Last week Congress expelled three party leaders who pushed her to quit two weeks ago by saying only Indian-born citizens should run for prime minister. Meanwhile, supporters rally outside her home. If she sticks to her decision, Congress will likely lose the elections and a new government might speed up investigation of alleged kickbacks during her husband’s tenure. Party sources claim Gandhi will give in to a “wave of sympathy” and return as chief after the 25th.
GERMANYBut Will the Stock Rise?
Sex sells. No one knows it better than 80-year-old Beate Rotermund, head of the world’s largest distributor of vibrators, lingerie and sex toys. Her company, Beate Uhse A.G., is already a $100 million-a-year business, thanks to franchise stores, mail order and online sales. But Rotermund wants to play the field and acquire some other European sex shops. To finance this, she’s taking her operation public this Thursday on the Frankfurt stock exchange. Buttoned-up Commerzbank will be running the IPO, which makes perfect sense for a company that’s tried to take a clean, businesslike approach to sex ever since Rotermund began delivering birth-control literature by bicycle in 1946. With online revenues growing 50 percent a year, analysts are getting excited. Says Frankfurt stockpicker Gerhard Czerwensky: “This stock is an aphrodisiac for your portfolio.”
CARSA Smell That’s Right on the Nose
New-car smell, that brew of plastic, glue and rubber treasured by car buyers, is a delicate and valuable aroma. Hoping to standardize its new models’ bouquet, Ford is replacing its staff of human sniffers with a $75,000 machine that uses polyester “sponges” to detect scents. Dubbed the e Nose 4000, the device is being tested on the Focus, a European model that debuts here this fall. Volkswagen has also begun to control its factory-fresh odors, but so far it’s sticking with standard nostrils.
VATICANA Cardinal Among the Deacons
When Wake Forest’s Demon Deacons Basketball team recruited Niki Arinze, the university got a bonus: Cardinal Francis Arinze, Niki’s Nigerian uncle, who gave last week’s commencement address. On everyone’s short list of papal candidates, Arinze, 66, makes about three U.S. visits a year–far more than John Paul II prior to this 1978 election. In his address, Arinze used terms–“solidarity,” “universal destination of created goods”–straight from the current pope’s phrasebook. The face is African, but so far Arinze’s ideas are papal deja vu all over again.
