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Paul Bilzerian
Paul Alec Bilzerian (born 1950) is an American businessman and former corporate raider. For two years, while he owned a controlling stake, he was the chairman and CEO of Singer Corporation. In 1989, he was convicted on nine felony counts of federal crimes, including criminal conspiracy, making false statements, securities fraud, tax fraud, and securities law violations, and sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of $1.5 million.
In 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bilzerian had "been on the run from the Securities and Exchange Commission for so long [31 years] that he now owes the agency $180 million with interest."
Bilzerian was born in Miami, Florida but grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts in an Armenian-American family. His father Oscar, a civil servant, and his mother divorced while he was in high school. Called into the principal's office of his high school one day in his senior year in September 1968 for violating the dress code by wearing blue jeans, Bilzerian reacted by dropping out of school. He would later describe himself as a "juvenile delinquent".
Starting in December 1968 Bilzerian served—ultimately as a first lieutenant—in the United States Army Signal Corps, passed a high school equivalency exam, and was deployed for a year during the Vietnam War during which time he set up telephone systems, and earned a Bronze Star Medal. He first attended small Clark University in Worcester, then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University in 1975, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School in 1977. He subsequently worked briefly in the treasurer's office of forest products company Crown Zellerbach in San Francisco, assessing merger opportunities.
One of Bilzerian's first business deals was a 1978 investment in a Tampa Bay-area radio station, WPLP. He made it, having borrowed money from his father-in-law, with two Army colleagues from the Vietnam War who had experience in the broadcasting industry. While the radio station had been breaking even when they bought it, it lost $1.4 million in their first year, and he was removed from the board and fired. The station’s performance deteriorated further, it filed for bankruptcy in 1980, and lawsuits were filed by Bilzerian and his former partners against each other.
Bilzerian then joined his father-in-law Harry in the real estate business in 1979, working on shopping center deals in Florida. His real estate investments were highly successful. In 1984, he moved to Sacramento, California, where his father-in-law and another business associate lived.
In August 1985 Bilzerian embarked on his first two high-profile, though unsuccessful, takeover attempts, one of New York clothing manufacturer Cluett Peabody & Company, and the other of Pittsburgh construction company H. H. Robertson. He and partner William Brodovsky, owning 9.9% of the company, offered to buy Cluett for $336 million, for $40 a share, half in cash and half in debt securities, but Cluett's chairman and chief executive responded that "management and the entire board of directors have absolutely no interest in pursuing your proposal." Two weeks later Cluett announced that it had adopted a shareholder rights plan to prevent takeovers financed by the company's borrowing capacity or the sale of the company's assets. After Bilzerian purchased a large stake and raised his bid for the remaining 76% of Cluett Peabody in October, Cluett's adoption of a poison pill led to public criticism of them by Bilzerian. Cluett eventually accepted a competing merger offer by WestPoint Pepperell (now WestPoint Home) for $41 per share (in cash or equivalent value of WestPoint Pepperell common stock); Bilzerian and his fellow investors agreed separately to sell their stake to WestPoint Pepperell for $40 per share plus reimbursement of $7.5 million in expenses.
Bilzerian moved back to Tampa, Florida in 1986. That July he and fellow investors William and Earle I. Mack (sons of New Jersey real estate developer H. Bert Mack) launched a takeover bid against the Hammermill Paper Company, purchasing about 3.3 million Hammermill shares at an average price of roughly $47-per-share, and then offering $52-per-share, and later $57-per-share, to purchase the remainder of the company. Bilzerian's offer was ultimately rejected, and Hammermill sold out to International Paper instead at $64.50 per share, but Bilzerian and his fellow investors still made a profit of $60 million or more from the deal.
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Paul Bilzerian
Paul Alec Bilzerian (born 1950) is an American businessman and former corporate raider. For two years, while he owned a controlling stake, he was the chairman and CEO of Singer Corporation. In 1989, he was convicted on nine felony counts of federal crimes, including criminal conspiracy, making false statements, securities fraud, tax fraud, and securities law violations, and sentenced to four years in prison and a fine of $1.5 million.
In 2024, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bilzerian had "been on the run from the Securities and Exchange Commission for so long [31 years] that he now owes the agency $180 million with interest."
Bilzerian was born in Miami, Florida but grew up in Worcester, Massachusetts in an Armenian-American family. His father Oscar, a civil servant, and his mother divorced while he was in high school. Called into the principal's office of his high school one day in his senior year in September 1968 for violating the dress code by wearing blue jeans, Bilzerian reacted by dropping out of school. He would later describe himself as a "juvenile delinquent".
Starting in December 1968 Bilzerian served—ultimately as a first lieutenant—in the United States Army Signal Corps, passed a high school equivalency exam, and was deployed for a year during the Vietnam War during which time he set up telephone systems, and earned a Bronze Star Medal. He first attended small Clark University in Worcester, then earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Stanford University in 1975, and a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School in 1977. He subsequently worked briefly in the treasurer's office of forest products company Crown Zellerbach in San Francisco, assessing merger opportunities.
One of Bilzerian's first business deals was a 1978 investment in a Tampa Bay-area radio station, WPLP. He made it, having borrowed money from his father-in-law, with two Army colleagues from the Vietnam War who had experience in the broadcasting industry. While the radio station had been breaking even when they bought it, it lost $1.4 million in their first year, and he was removed from the board and fired. The station’s performance deteriorated further, it filed for bankruptcy in 1980, and lawsuits were filed by Bilzerian and his former partners against each other.
Bilzerian then joined his father-in-law Harry in the real estate business in 1979, working on shopping center deals in Florida. His real estate investments were highly successful. In 1984, he moved to Sacramento, California, where his father-in-law and another business associate lived.
In August 1985 Bilzerian embarked on his first two high-profile, though unsuccessful, takeover attempts, one of New York clothing manufacturer Cluett Peabody & Company, and the other of Pittsburgh construction company H. H. Robertson. He and partner William Brodovsky, owning 9.9% of the company, offered to buy Cluett for $336 million, for $40 a share, half in cash and half in debt securities, but Cluett's chairman and chief executive responded that "management and the entire board of directors have absolutely no interest in pursuing your proposal." Two weeks later Cluett announced that it had adopted a shareholder rights plan to prevent takeovers financed by the company's borrowing capacity or the sale of the company's assets. After Bilzerian purchased a large stake and raised his bid for the remaining 76% of Cluett Peabody in October, Cluett's adoption of a poison pill led to public criticism of them by Bilzerian. Cluett eventually accepted a competing merger offer by WestPoint Pepperell (now WestPoint Home) for $41 per share (in cash or equivalent value of WestPoint Pepperell common stock); Bilzerian and his fellow investors agreed separately to sell their stake to WestPoint Pepperell for $40 per share plus reimbursement of $7.5 million in expenses.
Bilzerian moved back to Tampa, Florida in 1986. That July he and fellow investors William and Earle I. Mack (sons of New Jersey real estate developer H. Bert Mack) launched a takeover bid against the Hammermill Paper Company, purchasing about 3.3 million Hammermill shares at an average price of roughly $47-per-share, and then offering $52-per-share, and later $57-per-share, to purchase the remainder of the company. Bilzerian's offer was ultimately rejected, and Hammermill sold out to International Paper instead at $64.50 per share, but Bilzerian and his fellow investors still made a profit of $60 million or more from the deal.
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