Historic Black Enterprise Magazine Covers: Reginald Lewis’ $985 Billion Deal, Nov 1987

Reginald Lewis’ TLC Group acquires Beatrice International Foods in a $985 million leveraged buyout, the largest offshore transaction at the time. The deal creates TLC Beatrice, the first black-owned business to pass the billion-dollar revenue threshold and inspired a generation of African American deal makers on Wall Street.

Editor-in-Chief Derek T. Dingle and Multimedia Editor-At-large Alfred A. Edmond Jr. were among the journalists who broke the story of the business milestone.