The End of the Paper Chase

Last June, Publisher Rupert Murdoch (New York Post, the Times of London) startled executives of St. Regis by revealing that he had bought 5.6% of the shares of the big paper and forest-products company for $65 million. A few weeks later Murdoch launched a takeover fight. That sent the St. Regis officers scrambling to find a so-called White Knight who would save them from the publisher by buying their firm. Last week Champion International, a rival forest-products giant, came forward to do precisely that. Champion agreed to pay about $1.8 billion in cash and stock for the company. If approved by federal regulators, the deal will create the largest paper producer (combined 1983 sales: $7.1 billion) in the U.S.

Many Wall Street analysts welcomed the transaction. Said Mark Rogers of Dean Witter Reynolds: "This deal will make almost everybody happy." That includes Murdoch, who stands to make a profit of around $37 million by selling his St. Regis stock to Champion.