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- BUSINESS, Page 60Business NotesFINANCIERSBeverly Hills Meets Motown
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- Megarich financier Kirk Kerkorian knows how to make a
- fortune in the glitter mills of Las Vegas and Los Angeles, but
- can he do it in gritty Detroit? Last week Chrysler said the
- Beverly Hills investor had accumulated more than 9% of the
- troubled automaker's stock at an estimated cost of $250
- million. Kerkorian met with Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca
- earlier this month and professed support for the company's
- management but refused to sign a "standstill" agreement to stop
- increasing his stake, a Chrysler spokesman disclosed. Girding
- for a possible takeover bid, Chrysler has strengthened its
- poison-pill defense plan, which will allow current stockholders
- to buy shares at below-market prices if any investor acquires
- a stake of 10% or more.
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- Kerkorian, 73, collected $1.3 billion from the sale last
- month of his majority stake in MGM/UA Communications. Chrysler,
- which suffered a $214 million loss in the third quarter, must
- have looked like a bargain. Its stock price has fallen 40% in
- the past year, to 12 1/4. Even so, Kerkorian's strategy remains
- a mystery, since Chrysler's share of the auto market is
- weakening and the automaker's assets might be difficult to sell
- piecemeal.
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