TELETECH CORPORATION, 1996
Raiders Dials Teletech
Wake-up Call Needed Says Investor
New York (AP)---The reclusive billionaire Victor Yossarian has
acquired a 10 percent stake in Teletech Corporation and has
demanded two seats on the firm’s board of directors. The purchase was
revealed yesterday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange
Commission, and separately in a letter to Teletech’s CEO, Maxwell
Harper. “The firm is misusing its resources and not earning an
adequate return,” the letter said, “The company should abandon its
misguided entry into comput-ers, and sell the Product and
Systems Segment. Management must focus on creating value for
shareholders.” Teletech issued a brief statement emphasizing the
virtues of a link between com-puter technology and
telecommunications.
TELETECH CORPORATION, 1996
Margaret Weston, Teletech’s chief financial officer, learned of
Yossarian’s letter late one eveing in early January 1996. Quickly
she organized a team of lawyers and finance staff to assess
the threat. Maxwell Haper, the firm’s CEO, scheduled a
teleconference meeting of the firm’s board of directors the next
afternoon. Harper and Weston agreed that before the meeting they
needed to fash-ion a response to Yossarian’s & ...