Georgia-Pacific

BITS AND PIECES BRUCE DERON only wanted to recover some long-lost war medals he’d earned as an Air Force pilot during Vietnam. Thanks to Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Deron will be getting more recognition than he had expected. Deron, president of Waymart, PA-based SG Printing, had contacted McCain’s office inquiring about a way to replace his medals, which had been misplaced years ago during a move. McCain took a long look at Deron’s military record, verified the original citations and found there were other events where he should have been medaled for his actions, according to Deron’s son, Jason—the vice president of sales at

ATLANTA—Koch Forest Products, a subsidiary of Koch Industries, will pay $48 a share to acquire paper manufacturing giant Georgia-Pacific (G-P). Included in the transaction are all assets of G-P, including its North American and international consumer products segments, as well as its building products, packaging, paper and bleached board segments. The deal has an equity value of $13.2 billion and a total enterprise value of $21 billion. The price paid to shareholders represents a premium of 39 percent based on the closing price of G-P common stock on November 11. The transaction is not conditioned on financing. Debt financing has been secured by Koch through Citigroup.

NEW YORK—Georgia-Pacific announced that it is selling a controlling, 60 percent stake in its Unisource Worldwide paper distribution subsidiary to Bain Capital, a global private investment firm. Georgia-Pacific expects the transaction to result in roughly $850 million after-tax proceeds. Georgia-Pacific will retain 40 percent ownership of Unisource and will provide $170 million in seller financing. Net proceeds of the transaction will be used by Georgia-Pacific to reduce debt. As part of the transaction, which is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2002, Georgia-Pacific will enter into a sale-leaseback agreement with third parties for certain real estate assets now owned by Unisource. These

The Queen's Award for the overseas sales of book printing presses was presented to Timsons Ltd. at a ceremony at the company's UK headquarters recently. It was attended by all of the company's employees and almost 100 guests. After the reading of the citation, the Lord Lieutenant of Northamptonshire, Lady Juliet Townsend, presented a scroll to Timsons' Managing Director Peter Brown and a commemorative engraved rose bowl to Jane Brown, director and granddaughter of the company founder. Polly USA, previously the independent distributor with the exclusive right to market Polly sheetfed offset presses in the United States and Canada, has been acquired by the

Even in a world of increasingly more advanced technology, planning for trouble-free paper performance can still come down to the basics. Following a few rules of thumb for paper handling and usage can have a significant impact on a printed product's quality and efficiency of press operation. 1) Streamline workflow—One simple workflow rule to follow is FIFO (First In, First Out). The first paper coming into the warehouse should be the first to be printed, assuming it meets the job requirements. This will prevent paper from aging in the back of a warehouse because access is blocked by more recent paper shipments. Minimizing how

PORTLAND, OR—Just call Georgia-Pacific (G-P) "the other paper." Federal Way, WA-based Weyerhaeuser saw its year-long courtship of Willamette Industries, based here, turn into a acquisitional triangle when Willamette announced it was pursuing negotiations to obtain Georgia-Pacific's building products unit. Widely viewed as an act to discourage Weyerhaeuser's overtures, the acquisition of G-P's building products unit would give Willamette a product and service facelift, and preclude Weyerhaeuser from making the acquisition. Such a move, genuine or not, had the opposite effect. In fact, Weyerhaeuser upped its hostile takeover attempt of Willamette to $6.05 billion, from $50 a share to $55 a share. The total does not include

STAMFORD, CT—The long-awaited paper merger has finally become a reality. Only the participants are a bit surprising. No, Weyerhaeuser did not acquire Willamette. That should take a while. And it wasn't International Paper and Stora Enso (see Paper Mill Watch), which for now is only a rumor. How about Mead Corp. and Westvaco Corp.? On August 29 the companies jointly announced a $3 billion merger, with a combined annual revenues total of $8 billion. The newly created company will be called MeadWestvaco Corp. and will be headquartered here. The move essentially launches MeadWestvaco from mid-sized player into worldwide competition with IP and Georgia-Pacific.

IP Contest Winner Headed for VacationMEMPHIS, TN—International Paper Commercial Printing Papers has announced the winners of "The Best Ideas on Paper Sweepstakes," an online contest designed to encourage commercial printers to visit the company's Website, www.ipcommercialprinting.com. After 41 years of service with the Bobst Group, Joe Fuchs, vice president, has retired. Fuchs trained in Switzerland as a diecutter specialist before moving to the U.S. full-time in 1967. He was promoted to vice president in 1978, where he was responsible for directing the service activities for all Bobst products sold here. Georgia-Pacific has announced the appointment of Andrea Day as market manager

DEERFIELD, IL—Just as the paper and forest products industry was beginning to settle down, another pair of acquisition announcements have roiled the waters yet again. The biggest news came from Atlanta-based Georgia-Pacific, which signed an agreement to acquire Fort James Corp., based here, in a transaction valued at approximately $11 billion. The move will make Georgia-Pacific the world's leading manufacturer of tissue products, and while previous industry acquisitions have gone through without much notice from federal regulators, industry watchers have noted that anti-trust officials may look long and hard at this proposal. After the merger, Fort James will be integrated with the existing tissue business

Digital printing is finally well beyond concept acceptance, as On Demand proved last month. New moves in on-press imaging and color server technologies—and the Internet—are delivering on the promise of digital printing. BY MARIE RANOIA ALONSO Given the impossible-to-ignore high velocity of the Internet as it targets multiple areas of the print production process lately, it is no surprise that the Internet is also targeting the time-sensitive profit center that is on-demand digital printing. True to current form, the dotcom emphasis at On Demand in New York was staggering, but not surprising—new online solutions for on-demand document fulfillment, new Internet tools for