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  • Magazine

Sizzling Returns

Thompson hospitality was in crisis mode. Founded a few months earlier in 1992 when CEO Warren M. Thompson negotiated a leveraged buyout of 31 Big Boy restaurants from Marriott Corp., the fledgling company was neck-deep in debt. Herndon, Virginia-based Thompson Hospitality Corp. (No. 12 on the BE industrial/service companies list with $321 million in revenues) acquired the Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Virginia restaurants for $13.1 million. THC also raised $1.9 million in capital from about 25 investors, and Thompson anted up about $100,000 of his own cash to convert the locations into Shoney’s restaurants. But the transaction wasn’t going according to plan.

  • Magazine

How Reginald Lewis Changed Business Forever

It was the summer of 1987, and Christophe, who had left Citibank, was in his first week at TLC Group. Operating in his temporary office in the mailroom and seated at a card table, he was greeted by Lewis with papers in hand. It was a photocopy of the divestiture memorandum on Beatrice. Lewis had ambitious ideas about the company, and asked his old friend to take a look. Christophe stayed up all night, conducting a financial analysis of its operations. In the morning, the two quickly agreed that the division was worth pursuing.

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