International Paper

PORTLAND—Two weeks after its board of directors rejected a $5.4 billion bid to sell all its 112.5 million shares to rival paper and wood products manufacturer Weyerhaeuser, Willamette Industries faced a hostile takeover attempt. Weyerhaeuser Chairman Steven Rogel presented Willamette shareholders an unsolicited offer of $48 per share. Willamette shareholders had until January 4 to accept the offer. "(The offer) provides substantial value to Willamette shareholders at a premium well beyond what Willamette could achieve alone, now or later," Rogel told The Associated Press. Willamette is expected to urge stockholders not to accept the offer, which also includes Weyerhaeuser assuming roughly $1.7 billion in

PURCHASE, NY—International Paper has announced that three mills will be closed and another scaled back to help fulfill plans to reduce production capacity by 1.2 million tons annually in the uncoated paper, market pulp, unbleached Kraft paper and containerboard businesses. Approximately 2,500 employees at the mills and related forestry operations will be impacted by the shutdowns. The affected facilities include mills in Mobile and Courtland, AL; Lock Haven, PA; and Camden, AR. "International Paper's merger and acquisition activities over the past five years have given us the flexibility and low cost capacity that allows us to realign production more efficiently and reduce

There appears to be no shortage of cash when it comes time to pay the printing industry's top executives. This, Printing Impressions' 11th annual executive compensation report, highlights the industry's top money earners at publicly held printing companies. W. Ed Tyler, president and CEO of Moore Corp., appears at the top of this year's ranking with total compensation of $2,360,362. He replaces 1999's top-paid executive, Shorewood Packaging's Marc Shore, who does not appear this year following a merger with International Paper. For those executives appearing on the 2000 ranking, the previous year's salary and the percentage of change in compensation from this year to

ATLANTA—The U.S. paper and forest products industry buys and sells more than $400 billion worth of products annually. Some estimates are that at least a third of these transactions will be conducted online within the next few years. With that in mind, Georgia- Pacific Corp., International Paper and Weyerhaeuser Co. have committed funding of $51 million to establish a global business-to-business electronic marketplace for forest products. The entity will be known as ForestExpress. Four other forest products companies—Boise Cascade, Louisiana-Pacific, Mead and Willamette—are reportedly considering taking part, as well. Officials say the goal is to create a common platform to simplify and accelerate

PURCHASE, NY—International Paper (IP), based here, has made an unsolicited $6.2 billion cash and stock counter-offer to acquire Stamford, CT-based Champion International, which had already planned a friendly merger with Finland's UPM-Kymmene Corp. As part of the deal, IP would also assume about $2.3 billion in debt from Champion. Sparking the move is a recent 20 percent slide in UPM's share price, which has caused the value of the UPM's all-stock offer to slip from $6.6 billion at the time it was announced to about $5 billion. The possible bidding war is only the latest turmoil to hit the paper industry after a wave of consolidation

As the consolidation march pauses to take a breath, the sector's leaders are taking the time to prove to Wall Street that they can manage their new empires. BY CHRISTOPHER CORNELL About this time two years ago, the trade press were using metaphors like "juggernaut" and "tidal wave" to describe the actions of a half-dozen companies in the graphic arts industry, as they began an awe-inspiring crusade to consolidate one of North America's more fractured business sectors. Any metaphor that implied inevitability seemed appropriate. Announcements of new acquisitions came, at times, weekly; sometimes they even appeared daily. What a difference two years can make.

Foreign paper and board producers gobble up U.S. industry giants as the market continues to tighten for commercial printers. BY ERIK CAGLE Typically, activity in the paper industry is about as gripping as a documentary on fast-drying paints. But during a two-week period in February, two of the biggest names in U.S. paper and board manufacturing paired off with large, foreign counterparts in one of the biggest consolidation waves in industry history. When the smoke cleared: UPM-Kymmene, of Finland, purchased Stamford, CT-based Champion International. Finnish-Swedish manufacturer Stora Enso acquired Chicago-based Consolidated Papers, less than a month after buying Norweigan paper wholesaler Carl Emil

Last fall I wrote: "I continue to imagine that a new breed of print buyers will team up with a new generation of print manufacturers, and take advantage of the efficiencies and cost savings that the Web affords. But compared to computer buyers and book buyers, this new breed remains a tiny minority of today's market. When will it reach critical mass?" I referred to three companies that had begun to offer print purchasing via the Web. The list has expanded considerably since then, and now includes Collabria, ImageX, Impresse, I-Print, Noosh, Print Bid, PrintChannel, PrintMarket and Printing Network. Although I'm trying to closely

After a year that saw paper manufacturers' bottom lines hit rock bottom, increases are being announced almost unilaterally. A recovering Asian economy is among the reasons for the boost. BY ERIK CAGLE Did you see it coming? Why of course you did. Everyone knew that paper prices were going to go up. Yeah, we don't know anyone who wasn't aware of it. Heh, heh. Nice try, pal. Like a critically acclaimed Madonna movie, the July price increases left many people with their mouths agape. According to Pulp & Paper Week, International Paper, Georgia-Pacific, Willamette Industries, Champion International, Crown Vantage and P.H. Glatfelter have announced

NORWALK, CT—Further tightening its grip on the markets it hopes to dominate, Kodak Polychrome Graphics, confirming months of speculation, has reached an agreement to acquire Horsell Anitec, a supplier of graphic arts films, plates and paper products. Horsell Anitec is owned by International Paper and operates as part of its Imaging Products Division. The acquisition will include Horsell Anitec's sales, marketing, distribution, research and development, and manufacturing operations, including production facilities in Binghamton, NY, and Holyoke, MA, as well as plants in Europe. Approximately 1,800 Horsell Anitec employees will become Kodak Polychrome employees (Kodak Polychrome already has more than 2,600 employees). No announcement