The takeovers, which would provide cable-line access to about 60 percent of U.S. households, also offered
AT&T a solid grip on the cable TV and high-speed Internet-connection markets. Also in the late 1990s, Travelers
Group merged with Citicorp, forming the world's largest financial services company, while Ford Motor Company bought
the car business of Sweden's AB Volvo. Following a wave of Japanese takeovers of U.S. companies in the 1980s,
German and British firms grabbed the spotlight in the 1990s, as Chrysler Corporation merged into Germany's
Daimler-Benz AG and Deutsche Bank AG took over Bankers Trust. Marking one of business history's high ironies, Exxon
Corporation and Mobil Corporation merged, restoring more than half of John D. Rockefeller's industry-dominating
Standard Oil Company empire, which was broken up by the Justice Department in 1911. The $81,380 million merger
raised concerns among antitrust officials, even though the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) unanimously approved the
52
|