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The fear was palpable at High Voltage Engineering Corp. when a hostile tender offer in early 1988 started to pick up steam. By the time the $135 million takeover was completed that March, long-time senior officers of the small industrial conglomerate in Burlington, Mass., were mentally packing their bags. Forced retirement seemed inevitable at the hands of these new, unknown owners who called their company Hyde Park Holdings.
But the two native-born South African raiders (they eschew the term "raiders") who make up the Hyde Park partnership say bloodletting is not their style. A year after their $18-a-share buyout, what the company's new CEO wryly calls "the kinder, gentler LBO" appears to be a reality. Although there were a handful of predictable departures, virtually every remaining senior officer and division president is a veteran of HVE. Only CEO Gideon Argov, a 32-year-old Stanford MBA and former Israeli military officer, and David Friend, a Wharton-trained vice president of operations, represent the new ownership.
Further, although HVE today owns only 10 of the 18 subsidiaries it held at the time of the takeover, less than 1% of its workforce of 1,850 was laid off; other employees were absorbed in the restructuring or stayed with their companies under new ownership. And although it is leaner, with fewer divisions and 1,450 employees, HVE is expected to pull in $100 million in revenues when the current fiscal year ends on April 30. That revenue figure nearly matches the highest amount the company ever made in its fatter, but more financially volatile years.
The philosophy of the Hyde Park partners-Clifford Press, 35,...