Home > LRR > Vol. 1 > No. 1 (1982)
Article Title
Abstract
[Excerpt] Historically, the great majority of businesses in this industry have been small, and locally (often family) owned. Sometimes a skilled machinist leaves one firm to set up a new one, with a small bank loan and help from family savings. Some of these locally-owned companies are incorporated, for tax purposes, but the mode of management is essentially the same: personal (even paternalistic) and usually relatively informal.
All across the United States, during the late 1960s, there was a wave of conglomerate acquisitions of precisely the most successful of these previously independent or small corporate operations. Giants like Gulf+Western, Textron, Genesco, Litton and a hundred others sent buyers into areas like New England and made offers that those small business owners could not refuse. Every sector of the economy was affected: not only metalworking, but also apparel, shoes, department stores, hotels. In the years following the acquisition, a definite pattern emerged.
Recommended Citation
Harrison, Bennett
(1982)
"Gulf + Western: A Model of Conglomerate Disinvestment,"
Labor Research Review:
Vol. 1:
No.
1, Article 3.
Available at:
http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/lrr/vol1/iss1/3