Author	[Modern View]
Alan K 02-07-2013 21:25:52 208.83.191.64 Report to Moderator	That is what Ive always thought. If things would have closed in the early 1960s....ALOT of tractors wouldnt have happened. [Reply]   [No Email]
Paul in MN 02-08-2013 21:12:58 174.20.119.157 Report to Moderator	Re: Funny story.... in reply to Alan K, 02-07-2013 21:25:52   White made a hostile takeover. Stock prices were down, and MM had considerable assets. White bought enough cheap stock to gain control and stole MM blind. At that time the employee pension fund was considered an MM asset that was immediately liquidated by White to get the cash to buy up enough stock to "own" the company. MM was widely diversified in construction equipment and agriculture, and maybe was still the parent company of Minneapolis Steel (structural steel for bridges and tall buildings). They were asset rich, but ripe for takeover by predatory stock manipulation. White had previously taken over Oliver and Cockshut, but I am not familiar with the details of how that happened. Paul in MN [Reply]  [No Email]
Alan K 02-09-2013 07:58:32 208.83.191.64 Report to Moderator	Re: Funny story.... in reply to Paul in MN, 02-08-2013 21:12:58   I havent heard about the Oliver and Cockshutt buyouts either, but that would be interesting to hear as well. I remember my dad had cut a little section out of the paper for me which was something about the pension fund for MM employees that was cut. I think it was in the early 1980s which they said amounted to about $50 a month. I still have the news clipping someplace if I can find it. I think MM was the only company that still made AMERICAN made tractors under 90hp to sell in the late 1960s as everyone else had foreign ones at that time. Im guessing in 69-70 when White started to slap their name on everything (that kind of spoiled it for me) and offering the "heritage colors" to maybe smooth over the transition into what would eventually become White...kind of mudded the waters at that time allready for alot of people. [Reply]  [No Email]