Items12The creator’s order
  1. 1Martin LiptonMartin LiptonBorn 22 Jun 1931The poison pill. Lipton, a founding partner of the New York law firm Wachtell, Lipton, devised the shareholder rights plan in 1982, which lets a board flood the market with cheap shares if a bidder crosses a set threshold, making a hostile takeover ruinously expensive. Delaware courts upheld it in…0i
  2. 2Domenico De SoleDomenico De SoleGucci against LVMH. De Sole, Gucci's chief executive, responded in 1999 to Bernard Arnault's LVMH quietly building a large stake by issuing new shares to an employee trust and then selling a large block to François Pinault's PPR, diluting LVMH. The courts eventually backed him. The price of…0
  3. 3Craig NewmarkCraig NewmarkBorn 6 Dec 1952Staying small on purpose. Newmark started craigslist as an email list in San Francisco in 1995 and, with chief executive Jim Buckmaster, refused banner adverts, outside investment and a stock market listing, charging only for a few kinds of posting. When eBay bought a minority stake in 2004,…0i
  4. 4Guy DolléGuy DolléArcelor against Mittal. Dollé, chief executive of the Luxembourg-based steelmaker Arcelor, fought Lakshmi Mittal's hostile bid in 2006, dismissing it in disparaging terms and agreeing a rescue merger with Russia's Severstal. Shareholders rejected the defence and accepted a raised Mittal offer,…0
  5. 5Mark ZuckerbergMark ZuckerbergBorn 14 May 1984Refusing to sell, then locking in control. Zuckerberg turned down Yahoo's offer of about a billion dollars for Facebook in 2006, when the site was two years old, against the wishes of some investors and staff. At the 2012 listing he kept control through shares carrying ten votes each, so outside…0i
  6. 6Jerry YangJerry YangBorn 6 Nov 1968The cost of saying no. Yang, Yahoo's co-founder and then chief executive, rejected Microsoft's offer of about $44.6 billion in 2008 as undervaluing the company. Shareholders sued, the activist Carl Icahn attacked the board, and Yang stepped down as chief executive later that year. Yahoo's internet…0i
  7. 7Roger Carr (businessman)Roger Carr (businessman)Born 22 Dec 1946Cadbury against Kraft. Carr, Cadbury's chairman, fought Kraft's hostile bid in 2009 and 2010, but once hedge funds had bought shares the board recommended a raised offer and Kraft won. Kraft soon closed the Somerdale factory near Bristol despite suggesting it would stay open. The episode led…0i
  8. 8Axel DumasAxel DumasBorn 3 Jul 1970Hermès against LVMH. In 2010 LVMH revealed it had built a large stake in Hermès through derivatives, and the founding family, with Axel Dumas among its leaders, pooled most of its shares into a family holding company in 2011 so they could not be sold to an outsider. French regulators later fined…0
  9. 9Evan SpiegelEvan SpiegelBorn 4 Jun 1990Snap and no-vote shares. Spiegel turned down Facebook's reported offer of about $3 billion for Snapchat in 2013, and when Snap listed in 2017 it sold shares to the public that carried no votes at all, leaving him and co-founder Bobby Murphy in control. Facebook then copied Snapchat's Stories…0i
  10. 10Pascal SoriotPascal SoriotBorn 23 May 1959AstraZeneca against Pfizer. Soriot, AstraZeneca's chief executive, and chairman Leif Johansson rejected Pfizer's approach of about £69 billion in 2014, arguing it undervalued the drug pipeline and would cut research, and promising strong future sales instead. Pfizer walked away under UK takeover…0i