Giving Away the StoreMost of the corporate...

Giving Away the Store

Most of the corporate raiders from the 1980s have vanished, with none more invisible now than Robert Campeau.

The unpredictable Canadian businessman in 1988 briefly acquired Federated Department Stores, parent of the famed Bloomingdale’s department store and, at the time, Southern California’s Ralphs Grocery Co. chain. Campeau’s business empire collapsed shortly after that, with Ralphs eventually divested from Federated.

Now in his new book “Like No Other Store . . . ,” former Bloomingdale’s chief Marvin S. Traub tells what it was like working for the erratic Campeau.

Campeau, Traub says, once shocked Ralphs management by announcing to the press that he decided to keep the supermarket chain. According to Traub, Campeau hadn’t even bothered to tell Ralphs Chairman Byron Allenbaugh, who was working to take the company private.

In another tale, Traub tells of Campeau’s habit of cheating at golf.

During a game in Bermuda, Traub says, Campeau appeared to hit a ball into the woods. When Traub and the others reached the green, Campeau claimed he had scored a near impossible hole-in-one. Traub says Campeau even bought Champagne later to celebrate.

Unfashionable Fight

One of the highly anticipated public stock sales this fall comes from fashion designer Donna Karan’s operation.

One detail in the company’s prospectus reveals an unusual eight-year dispute between Donna Karan New York and a Swiss stationery, jewelry and leather products company called Caran D’Ache.

Seems that the Swiss company has been blocking Donna Karan’s attempts to register the company name in Canada and Germany, arguing that consumers might be confused by the similarity in the way the companies pronounce their names.

Donna Karan says it has received a favorable ruling from the German patent office, although Caran D’Ache is appealing. Canada has yet to weigh in on the issue.

Hands-On Experience

Who better to head the main public relations trade group than someone facing a gigantic PR problem?

Scheduled to serve in 1994 as president of the Public Relations Society of America is Joseph A. Vecchione, chief spokesman for Prudential Insurance Co. of America.

Last month, Prudential agreed to a massive, open-ended settlement--starting at $371 million--stemming from allegations by regulators that its securities operation fleeced hundreds of thousands of customers in the 1980s through the sale of energy, real estate and other partnerships.

Briefly . . .

A 1965 football card of former Buffalo Bills quarterback and presidential hopeful Jack Kemp will be auctioned in San Francisco this month starting at $450 to $500. . . . A Cancun resort says it plans to be a showcase of “proven anti-aging technology and a resource center for the latest developments in longevity research worldwide.” . . . A New York company sells for $55 cuff links made from old New York City subway tokens.