Year of Merger Mania and a Mega-Market : 1985 KEY BUSINESS EVENTS

JANUARY

Treasury Secretary Donald T. Regan switches jobs with James A. Baker III, White House chief of staff.

Nine of OPEC’s 13 members lower the benchmark price of crude oil.

AT&T; reports a disappointing $1.4-billion profit for the first year following its divestiture.

FEBRUARY

Phillips Petroleum faces a takeover bid from financier Carl C. Icahn. A month later, Icahn walks away after a recapitalization at Phillips yields him a $50-million profit.

The Transportation Department endorses Norfolk Southern’s bid for Conrail, but unions and Congress object.

Bank of Boston is fined $500,000 for not reporting $1.2 billion in cash transactions, presaging similar fines at other banks.

Bank of America sets aside $95 million for losses from a mortgage-securities scheme.

John M. Fedders resigns as SEC enforcement chief after publicity that he had beaten his wife on several occasions.

A four-week strike by Pan Am workers all but grounds the airline.

MARCH

President Reagan decides not to extend quotas on car imports from Japan, which later sets its own higher voluntary quotas.

The collapse of a Florida securities firm triggers the failure of Home State Savings Bank in Ohio and a deposit run at the state’s privately insured savings firms. Ohio’s governor declares a bank holiday and sets withdrawal limits.

W. Paul Thayer, former deputy secretary of defense, pleads guilty to obstructing justice in a case of insider stock trading. In May, he is sentenced to four years in prison and separately agrees to repay $500,000 of profits.

The government of India says it will sue Union Carbide and claims sole authority to represent Bhopal disaster victims.

National Intergroup sets a merger with Bergen Brunswig of Los Angeles for $700 million, but the deal falls apart in April.

Capital Cities Communications agrees to acquire ABC for $3.5 billion.

Rupert Murdoch agrees to buy half of 20th Century Fox. In September, he gets the other half.

IBM announces a halt to production of its PCjr computer.

APRIL

Sir James Goldsmith’s offer of $1 billion-plus for Crown Zellerbach touches off a takeover battle that he wins in July. In December, the firm’s assets are split between Goldsmith and James River Corp.

Financial Corp. of America announces a $512-million fourth-quarter loss. Auditor’s statement is qualified.

T. Boone Pickens Jr. seeks to take over Unocal after first buying its stock in February. The bid fails in May after a fierce fight with Unocal management and a knockout Delaware court ruling.

Ted Turner makes a no-cash, $5.4-billion bid for CBS but gives up in August.

Coca-Cola introduces New Coke. Massive consumer resistance leads the company to bring back the old Coke in July.

Beverly Hills Savings & Loan fails; regulators from other savings firms will oversee it.

Atlantic Richfield announces a huge restructuring: a $4-billion stock buy-back, sale of its Eastern service stations and early retirement for thousands of employees.

MAY

E. F. Hutton is fined $2.75 million plus $8 million in restitution after pleading guilty to a scheme similar to check kiting.

Mobil decides to spin off its Montgomery Ward chain, writing off $500 million. In the summer, Ward decides to phase out its catalogue business.

Rupert Murdoch and Marvin Davis make a $2-billion offer for seven Metromedia stations. Murdoch goes it alone in June after Davis pulls out.

Allied purchases Signal for $5 billion. Allied-Signal restructures in November, forming a new company with revenue of $3 billion.

Tribune Co. buys Los Angeles’ KTLA Channel 5 television station for $510 million, requiring the sale of the Daily News in Van Nuys. The paper is sold in December to Jack Kent Cooke.

President Reagan’s tax-reform plan calls for three tax brackets, higher personal exemptions and higher business taxes.

Two General Dynamics units are banned from further bidding on Navy projects; the company is fined for “pervasive” business misconduct. Chairman David S. Lewis will resign by year-end. The firm’s bidding status is restored in August.

Carl C. Icahn launches a takeover bid for TWA, taking control in August after beating off rival suitor Texas Air.

JUNE

General Motors wins bidding for Hughes Aircraft; GM will pay more than $5 billion.

Nabisco Brands is sold to R. J. Reynolds for $4.9 billion.

Wickes, just out of Chapter 11, will pay $1 billion for Gulf & Western’s consumer and industrial group.

JULY

David A. Stockman ends stormy tenure as the Administration’s budget director.

Monsanto agrees to buy G. D. Searle, maker of Nutrasweet, for $2.7 billion.

American Hospital Supply agrees to its acquisition by Baxter Travenol for $3.8 billion, scuttling a previous plan to join with Hospital Corp. of America.

UAW approves a labor pact with GM for the Saturn plant, which the company later decides will be built in Spring Hill, Tenn.

AUGUST

Ford Motor will buy San Francisco’s First Nationwide Savings for $493 million.

Manville tentatively agrees to satisfy billions of dollars in asbestos claims with a trust that would have a controlling interest in the company.

Ted Turner agrees to acquire MGM UA in a $1.5-billion deal but will sell United Artists back to Kirk Kerkorian for $500,000.

BankAmerica, facing huge loan losses, cuts its dividend for the first time in 50 years.

A cloud of gas escapes from Union Carbide’s Institute, W.Va., plant, sending more than 100 people to hospitals.

AT&T; announces plans to eliminate 24,000 jobs in its Information Systems unit.

A. H. Robins, faced with lawsuits over the Dalkon Shield, files for Chapter 11.

Crocker National Bank is fined $2.25 million for not reporting $3.9 billion in cash transactions.

SEPTEMBER

Steven P. Jobs resigns as Apple Computer chairman amid a fight with the board and President John Sculley.

Major stock exchanges move up their starting times by half an hour.

The Farm Credit System seeks billions of dollars in aid. In December, Congress permits ultimate a Treasury bail-out.

House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski offers an alternative tax-reform plan that raises business taxes and allows some deductions for state and local taxes.

Philip Morris will buy General Foods for $5.6 billion.

The United States and four other countries embark on a campaign to lower the dollar’s value.

OCTOBER

Treasury Secretary James A. Baker III proposes a new plan for easing Third World debt crisis.

Fluor announces a major restructuring and takes a $410-million write-down.

Macy executives offer $3.6 billion for the retailer. The price is later lowered slightly.

U.S. Steel agrees to buy Texas Oil & Gas for $3.6 billion in stock.

NOVEMBER

United Airlines orders $3 billion in jets from Boeing in the biggest aviation contract ever. Separately, it gets approval to buy Pan Am’s Pacific routes.

Chevron plans to dispose of its East Coast distribution and marketing operations, including 4,800 gas stations.

Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. will buy Beatrice for $6.2 billion, the largest deal in which a company is taken private.

A Houston jury requires Texaco to pay $10.5 billion to Pennzoil because Texaco lured Getty Oil away from a deal with Pennzoil. Texaco scrambles to avert financial catastrophe.

DECEMBER

Indictments are filed against General Dynamics, three executives and a NASA administrator, who was once a Dynamics official, for fraud in connection with the Sgt. York anti-aircraft gun.

RCA and General Electric announce the largest non-oil merger in history, for $6.3 billion.

GAF makes a $4.3-billion hostile offer for Union Carbide, which later plans a $2-billion stock buy-back.

OPEC gives up on controlling prices and seeks to maintain its share of the world oil market. Oil prices tumble.

The House passes a tax-reform bill after heavy lobbying by President Reagan.