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Faces In The News
Johnson Beats Bird For NBA Team; Monsanto's Verfaille Resigns
Davide Dukcevich, 12.18.02, 6:04 PM ET
NEW YORK - Doers and doings in business, entertainment and technology:
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Larry Bird: The game's best finally found his match.
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Basketball legend Larry Bird tasted rare defeat at the hands of a man named Johnson. No, it was not his hardwood nemesis Magic Johnson. This time, it was television mogul Robert Johnson. Johnson, the founder of Black Entertainment Television, was awarded Charlotte's new professional basketball franchise by the NBA's expansion committee. The first African-American billionaire (with an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion) will also become the NBA's first African-American majority owner. In doing so, he beat the offer made by former Boston Celtic
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) great Bird. Another hoop immortal, Michael Jordan, who also had tried to acquire the Charlotte franchise, praised the outcome: "I think Bob's going to do well. He has the first thing you need as an owner -- the love of the game." Johnson and his investment group will pay almost $300 million for the team, which will begin play in the 2004-05 season. The billionaire sold BET to Viacom
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) for $3 billion about three years ago and continues as its CEO. More...
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Henrik Verfaille steps down.
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Agrochemical company Monsanto
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) on Dec. 18 said that CEO Henrik Verfaillie was resigning, sending the firm's stock down by more than 10%. A 26-year veteran at the firm, Verfaillie led the firm through its merger with Pharmacia & Upjohn, an IPO, and a subsequent spin off from Pharmacia
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) in 2002. But limp sales in the U.S. and Latin America has lead to a 40% drop in stock price this year. Monsanto Chairman Frank AtLee will serve as interim CEO as the Monsanto seeks a new leader from outside the company. More...
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Ron Perelman
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Ron Perelman wants to give Revlon
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) a $150 million makeover. Reuters said that the billionaire proposed providing a $100 million senior unsecured non-cash interest line of credit to Revlon. Under the plan, Revlon would make a $50 million rights offering that would let shareholders buy more Class A stock. Perelman would buy a share of the rights offering in line with its ownership of Revlon and also would acquire any of the additional Class A common shares not bought by shareholders. Revlon's board, which has seen shares drop to $3.38, must approve the proposal. More...
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Michael Eisner
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Walt Disney
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) said on Tuesday its board was reviewing Chief Executive Michael Eisner's participation in a 1999 IPO following a shareholder complaint. Eisner had purchased 30,000 shares of Goldman Sachs Group
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) in the investment bank's IPO; Disney said its board, following routine corporate governance practices, had formed a committee of independent directors to review the matter. "The committee is expected to report back to the board in early 2003. Mr. Eisner, a 10-year substantial private client of Goldman Sachs, participated in the offering at the invitation of his personal banker, and he has not participated in any other IPO," Disney told Reuters. Disney is a corporate client of Goldman, which was co-lead manager with Salomon Smith Barney of a $300 million global bond offering by "the house that Mickey built" on Monday. The request follows a recent decision by Ford Motor
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) to investigate a similar complaint. The automaker's board last week agreed to study the acquisition by Chief Executive Bill Ford of 400,000 shares of the Goldman offering, sources said. Ford was chairman of the automaker at the time. Disney shares closed Tuesday at $17.03 on the New York Stock Exchange, a gain of 15 cents for the day. More...
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Chris Gent
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Vodafone Group
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) Chief Executive Chris Gent announced his resignation from Europe's No. 1 mobile phone group on Wednesday, saying he would yield--to a Yank. Gent will step down in July 2003 and be replaced by Arun Sarin, head of U.S.-based Accel-KKR Telecom. "This appointment is part of a carefully orchestrated succession plan," declared Chairman Lord MacLaurin in a statement, pointing out that the CEO had already expressed his wish to retire from the helm next year, and wasn't under pressure to leave. "Chris Gent will go down in history as one of the great chief executives this country has ever seen," he told BBC Radio. Gent, 54, took the helm in January 1997, when the company's market value stood at about 7.5 billion pounds ($12 billion). Vodafone's value now stands at more than 77 billion pounds. One of the prime deal-makers during one of the biggest acquisition binges in corporate history, Gent may be smart to bow out just as the merger embers grow cold: He was recently trumped by Jean-Rene Fourtou's Vivendi Universal
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) in Vodafone's 13.1 billion euro ($13.5 billion) bid to buy out French telecom firm Cegetel. More...
News items can be submitted to Greg Levine at glevine@forbes.net or by calling him at (212) 366-8900.
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