Why Should White Guys Have All the Fun? The Story About How a Black Man, Reginald Lewis, Created a Billion-Dollar Business Empire in the 1980s. Reginald F. Lewis (December 7, 1942 – January 19, 1993), was an American businessman, who was one of the most successful business leaders during the 1980s. He was the richest African American man in the 1980s. Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he grew up in a middle class neighborhood. He completed a $22.5 million acquisition of New York-based McCall Pattern Co., a sewing products and publishing operation. You remember when Ur mother or grandmother used to buy sewing patterns from McCall? Well they were buying from a black man. Reginald Lewis didn’t stop right there, as a very shrewd financier, he sold the then-113-year-old institution for $90 million, netting a $50 million profit. But Reginald Lewis didn’t stop right there... In 1987, through deal-making savvy and iron-willed tenacity, 44-year-old Lewis bagged the proverbial elephant: Beatrice International Foods Cos., a manufacturer of processed meats, dairy products and beverages. In purchasing Beatrice, Lewis teamed up with Michael Milken, the legendary junk bond king and senior executive of Drexel Burnham Lambert, the maverick investment bank of the ’80s. Lewis used high-yield debt, or “junk bonds,” to acquire the company in a $985 million leveraged buyout. He beat out such powerhouses as Citicorp, Pillsbury and Shearson Lehman Brothers. This brother was a MAJOR player. At the time, it was the largest offshore transaction ever and, with $1.8 billion in gross sales, TLC Beatrice became the first black-owned company to crack the billion-dollar ceiling. In 1992, Forbes magazine listed Lewis among the 400 richest Americans with a net worth estimated at $400 million. He also was the first African American to build a billion dollar company. After completing the transaction, Lewis didn’t have time to stand on ceremony. In fact, he was uncomfortable being labeled “the Jackie Robinson of deal making.” He was a man who wanted to be measured by performance, not race. “To carry around the notion that if I fail, it’s going to mean that no other black person will ever have a similar opportunity, or that if I succeed, it’s going to open a floodgate of opportunity for other black Americans, misses the point,” he said at the time. “If our work is perceived as an indication that we can function in a global, competitive situation, that’s nice. But I’ve always believed that anyway.” Whether he wanted to assume the role or not, Lewis became emblematic of the rise of the black financial entrepreneur. TLC represented an institutional model of black business instead of the more traditional, patriarch-controlled family business. After the Beatrice deal, it no longer was viewed as uncommon for an African American entrepreneur to catapult to the upper echelons of the BE 100s by merging with another company or acquiring a division of a Fortune 500 corporation. Interesting note, John H. Johnson never allowed Reginald Lewis to be covered by Ebony or Jet Magazine, that’s why you never saw him in either magazine. There were 2 reasons given for this: Reginald Lewis blocked John Johnson from buying Essence Magazine and Johnson did not like the way he use the modernized technology of Wall Street to his massive riches. I don’t know, I think is was each one was hating on each other and had the Crab in the Basket Mentality or the bit of Schadenfreude. All good things, must come to an end, and Reginald Lewis died at age 50, from brain cancer. This is just get information we need to know, or if U already knew please re-emphasize about our black history. This is Adrian X and this is Just My 2 cents.... References: amazon/Should-White-Guys-Have-Billion-Dollar/dp/1574780506/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y consultlmc/black-history-first-black-billionaire-reginald-lewis/ youtube/watch?v=JPci4_ohixY youtube/watch?v=XmaUPsCohQM youtube/watch?v=oDLNj_sxCPk
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 19:43:36 +0000
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