Merger of Equals? Try Murder of Equals

摘要

Henry wants walter out. Walter doesn't want to go. The two barely talk. They've hired dueling PR firms. They work in offices 30 miles away from each other. Henry and Walter are CEO and chairman, respectively, of the same FORTUNE 500 company, the beleaguered Cendant. Their standoff is an object lesson in just how bad a "merger of equals" can get. Such mergers are in vogue now, with Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter and Citicorp-Travelers as prominent examples. Even at their best these arrangements can be dicey, since CEOs are not accustomed to sharing power; that's why the deals often include strictures designed to preserve the authority of each company's head. At Cendant those strictures have become a straitjacket—especially for Henry Silverman, who now finds himself and his company attached, against his will, to Walter Forbes, a man he no longer trusts.