COVER STORY Mergers: Why Most Big Deals Don't Pay Off A BusinessWeek analysis shows that 61% of buyers destroyed shareholder wealth COVER IMAGE: The Merger Hangover CHART: Merger Boom GRAPHIC: Big Winners GRAPHIC: Big Losers GRAPHIC: Why Mergers Go Wrong GRAPHIC: Big Deals GRAPHIC: Measuring Mergers ONLINE EXTRA TABLE: How 302 Major Mergers Fared Addicted to Acquisitions GRAPHIC: A Sampler of Serial Acquirers INTERNATIONAL -- INT'L COVER STORY Special Report: Global Poverty There's no panacea. But here are five strategies that can work to improve the lives of millions around the world UP FRONT Talk Show Heavy Luggage for Lease Holders Big Blue's Boardroom Bind A Tough Haul for Black Startups A CEO Never Forgets His Roots A Kitschmeister Goes Chic Behind Bars: Ex-Geeks READERS REPORT In Search of the Good CEO Strong Opinions on Stock Buybacks Shareholders Didn't Benefit As Much As Jack Welch Did CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS "The best & worst boards" (Cover Story, Oct. 7, 2002) "The telecom depression" (Special Report, Oct. 7, 2002) "Cloning: Huckster or hero?" (People, July 1, 2002) BOOKS How Hizzoner Rose to the Occasion The Deadly Sins of Enron The BusinessWeek Best-Seller List TECHNOLOGY & YOU The Laptop Has Been Liberated ECONOMIC VIEWPOINT Free Markets Are Great--but Not for Electricity ECONOMIC TRENDS Tracking the Dollar's Fall The Art of the Chart Don't Sweat the Debt BUSINESS OUTLOOK U.S: The Dry Economy Sprouts a Tender Shoot Japan: Recent Signs Show Little Progress NEWS: ANALYSIS & COMMENTARY A Clean Break for the Street? Commentary: Bad CEOs: Nowhere to Run, Nowhere to Hide Is the Avalanche Headed for Pricewaterhouse? Just How Much Did John Moores Know? The Squeal of Car Sales Braking Those Perennial Kings of the Road AOL Is Relearning Its ABCs Keep It Simple, Cendant IN BUSINESS THIS WEEK John Biggs: This Cop Isn't on the Beat Yet Filling in AT&T's Management Chart Message to Big Pharma: Behave A Fat Quarter for Dell All Quiet on the Western Docks Nothing Stands in Wal-Mart's Way Et Cetera... Losing Blood WASHINGTON OUTLOOK The Energy Watchdog Finally Barks. But Will It Bite? Dems in Disarray INTERNATIONAL OUTLOOK Brazil: Business Likes Lula--but Wall Street Doesn't While international financiers worry, Brazil's big businesses are supporting the labor leader and Presidential frontrunner Eichel's Balancing Act BOOK EXCERPT A Foreign Policy Harmful to Business MARKETING Can Saturn Get Off the Ground Again? MEDIA Why Gordon Crawford Is Throwing His Weight Around THE CORPORATION Kmart: A Fix-Up on Fast Forward ECONOMICS America's Pockets of Prosperity GOVERNMENT The GOP's Statehouse Blues THE WORKPLACE An Apple a Day--on the Boss Commentary: Closing the School Gap SPORTS BUSINESS Where No Sports Nut Has Gone Before PEOPLE Meet Rudy Giuliani, Businessman LEGAL AFFAIRS Commentary: Why the Little Guy Can't Win INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY How Ebbers Kept the Board in His Pocket Commentary: Digital Media: Don't Clamp Down Too Hard FINANCE A Global Crisis of Confidence? Japan's Banks Get Another Mr. Fix-It SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Commentary: Call It the Wrong Stuff DEVELOPMENTS TO WATCH Dentures That'll Grow on You Build a Better Pedal Crank, and... Strong and Firm, Aerogels Come into Their Own Innovations BUSINESSWEEK INVESTOR Getting to the Bottom of a Company's Debt How to Read a Credit Rating Housing: A Shelter for Your Savings? Q&A: Today's Dads: Same Old Parenting Trap (extended) BUSINESSWEEK LIFESTYLE Don't Cry for These Argentine Wines Christmas, Alsatian Style THE BARKER PORTFOLIO Is Dole Worth a Fierce Food Fight? INSIDE WALL STREET Amazon Turns a Page If Your Suit Is a 56 Extra-Long This Drug May Wake Up Orphan FIGURES OF THE WEEK Figures of the Week (.pdf) EDITORIALS There's No Magic in Mergers Don't Fight Poverty with Worn-Out Tools INTERNATIONAL -- READERS REPORT The Only Cure for Drugmakers' Ills Is Innovation Calling India to the Negotiating Table Jordan Is in No Danger of Becoming a Palestinian State INTERNATIONAL -- CORRECTIONS & CLARIFICATIONS "Europe's money hunt" (Finance, Oct. 7, 2002) INTERNATIONAL -- ASIAN BUSINESS Westward Ho! North Korea: Tiptoeing toward Tokyo There's No End to DoCoMo's Wireless Hangover INTERNATIONAL -- EUROPEAN BUSINESS Eastern Germany's Silicon Dream Born Again in Dresden Maybe Buying Gucci Was Too Much of a Luxury Lukoil's $20 Billion Headache Has GM Pulled Opel Out of Its Skid? INTERNATIONAL -- INT'L FIGURES OF THE WEEK International Figures of the Week (.pdf)
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North American Cover Photograph by Stephen Webster
Asian and European Cover Photograph by S. Paul/Indiapicture.com
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