He envisioned making American Express into a “financial supermarket” for every need, but he did not survive the fallout from an age of excess.
James Robinson III, left, chief executive of American Express, holds an American Express card with Sanford Weill of Shearson Loeb Rhoades in April 1981 in New York after American Express agreed to buy the brokerage firm in an $875 million deal.
His acquisition hunt began almost immediately. Mr. Robinson made an unsuccessful bid in 1978 for the publishing company McGraw Hill, seeking to expand the Amex portfolio into media. He followed up by striking athe cable deal in 1985, but not before Mr. Robinson put forth a prescient vision of how nearly everything — financial services, stock trades and credit card payments — would eventually migrate to online platforms.
The announcement opened the gates. Nearly every private equity firm put up bids with Nabisco in play. Mr. Robinson became a close adviser to the Nabisco management faction, led by the highflying chief executivea $109-a-share buyout deal with Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, or KKR, valued at nearly $25 billion and setting a new high bar in the 1980s takeover frenzy.The outcome pushed most of RJR Nabisco’s top executives out the door, but all with big paydays from stocks and severance.
But when the rush of the 1980s ran its course, the blame fell on Mr. Robinson for seemingly pushing too hard, too fast and taking his eye off Amex’s core products.of $166 million for the last quarter of 1992, dragged down by tanking property investments and other ill-fated bets. The American Express green and gold cards — pillars of the company for decades — began to lose market share as rivals promised lower fees and better perks.
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