Irv the Operator

摘要

At his fiercest; corporate raider Irwin L. Jacobs, a member of The Forbes 400 richest Americans from 1986 to 1988, terrorized chief executives, forcing them to either fix their problems or sell them off—to him, if possible. He bought stakes in Kaiser Steel, Walt Disney, Borg-Warner and Pabst Brewing, financing his predations with his own cash, then selling for a quick profit. These days Jacobs, 63, plays a very different but no less intense game. From its headquarters in Minnesota, he runs privately held Genmar Holdings, the nation's second-largest pleasure boat company after Brunswick, with expected revenue this year of $1.1 billion. He is a shadow of his former silhouette as it appeared in the sagas of the takeover era, The Predators' Ball and Den of Thieves. Now he is doing a lot more holding than shedding of assets. Not that he would turn down the right offer for his 40% stake in Genmar. For now he's content to operate the company.