Watkins incorporated private company Irwin L. Jacobs
EXCERPT:
Watkins has a nose for things that are natural, soothing, and appealing to the senses. Through its apothecary, home care, and gourmet divisions, the company manufactures more than 350 natural products, including body lotions and bath salts, organic dish soaps and bathroom cleaners, and organic black pepper and vanilla extracts. Watkins, which distributes its products in the US, Canada, the UK, and the Philippines, sells through retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart, and Whole Foods, as well as through its e-commerce Web site. Owned by chairman Irwin L. Jacobs since 1978, Watkins' roots go back to the 1860s.

Where oh where have all the corporate raiders gone
EXCERPT:
Here is a look at some of the men -- there are no women in their ranks -- who with Irwin L. Jacobs helped define the decade of greed, and where they are today.

Irwin L. Jacobs
EXCERPT:
Irwin L Jacobs is an entrepreneur and the CEO of several large corporations, including Genmar Holdings, Inc. the worlds largest boat building company. He earned the nickname "Irv the Liquidator" for his aggressive business practices in the 1970s and early 1980s. He is a deal maker and bargain hunter based in Minneapolis and became wealthy by taking big stakes in Fortune 500 conglomerates, usually with the goal of unlocking value by breaking them up.

Company that bought Harley taken over in hostile takeover
EXCERPT:
In 1985 AMF became the object of a hostile takeover bid from corporate raider Irwin L. Jacob's Minstar, Inc., and the company was acquired for $563.8 million in June 1985. In the months that followed, Jacobs sold off many of the companies that comprised AMF. The bowling division, then the most profitable division of AMF, was sold to Commonwealth Venture Partners in 1986.

In 2002 AMF Bowling Worldwide is a publicly held company. It is the largest owner and operator of bowling centers in the world, with about 385 U.S. bowling centers and over 100 international bowling centers.

Goldman Sachs owns majority of AMF bowling
EXCERPT:
Investment banking firm Goldman, Sachs & Co. owns a majority interest in AMF Bowling.

Irwin L. Jacobs and airlines and Bush
EXCERPTs:
1) Shaklee received an unsolicited acquisition proposal from a group led by Irwin L. Jacobs, which has offered $40 a share, or $560 million total.

2)Eastern Airlines was struck by its machinists after President Bush declined to intervene in the dispute that threatened to cripple the nation's seventh-largest airline. The pilots' union urged its members not to cross the picket lines that went up at scores of airports shortly after midnight. [ Page 1. ] Eastern plans to contract out much of the maintenance on its planes.

European Directive fails to harmonize takeovers (hostile takeovers) cannot copy & paste must click url to read
NO EXCERPT

HarleyBot
EXCERPTS:
1) The Great Depression almost succeeded in devastating the entire motorcycle industry. Only two manufacturers survived the slump. Harley-Davidson was one of them, thanks to a strong dealer network, police and military use, and conservative business management combined with strong exports. Then, in 1941 the company answered the call to war - its entire motorcycle output supplying American and Allied forces during World War II. The Milwaukee-based production line built more than 90,000 motorcycles during the war, earning the coveted Army-Navy ‘E’ aware for excellence in wartime production.

The fifties and sixties also saw the explosion of the American motorcycle culture, with black leather jackets becoming not only a statement of fashion, but of a lifestyle. The tough ‘Wild Ones’ image, made popular by the Marlon Brando movie of the same name, labeled motorcycle enthusiasts as outlaws, even though only a tiny proportion of all motorcyclists happen to conform with such an anarchic image.

Peter Fonda (brother of Jane, son of Henry) rode into oblivion on a Harley, to the strains of Steppenwolf’s rock anthem ‘Born to be Wild’ in the infamous road movie ‘Easy Rider’. But as is so often the case, that which is portrayed in the media as bad and unacceptable, soon comes to be embraced by the very establishment which has ostracized it. As a result, modern-day rebels, such as American move stars, Bruce Willis and Michael Douglas, revel in helmetlessness weekend jaunts along Sunset Boulevard. They are joined by other members of the action movie set - Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone equally enthusiastic riders of the famous marque.

And in these politically correct times, when ‘dames’ are no longer ‘the weaker sex’, such personalities as the popular yet raunchy stage performer Cher have taken to the Harley. But royalty also lays claim to a share in Harley fever, with King Juan Carlos of Spain regularly heading out towards the hills on his customized Electraglide. Thus making two kings of the road on one bike.

In 1965, Harley-Davidson ended family ownership

2)Harley-Davidsons have thus become big business.

Harley friends
EXCERPTs:

1)"I started riding at a very young age. First riding mini-bikes and mopeds and then when I went into the military buying my first motorcycle."

2)"I come from a whole family of Military servicemen. My grandfather served in the Army during WWI."

3)"After 9/11/01, our world changed and so did my perspective. My Country has always been important to me, but it became paramount on that miserable day. "

Genmar holdings
EXCERPT:
Irwin Jacobs earned the nickname "Irv the Liquidator" for his aggressive business practices in the 1970s and early 1980s. In takeover attempts, both successful and unsuccessful, of major corporations such as Pabst Brewing Co. and Kaiser Steel Corp., he earned the reputation of a corporate raider who preferred to dismantle failing enterprises rather than operate a business.

Genmar Minstar
EXCERPT:
Irv the Boat Maker
Even when he was "raiding" companies in the '80s, Irwin Jacobs was also busy building them. He's made Genmar into a $1 billion boat manufacturer.

Former corporate raider act is tough
EXCERPT:
Wait a minute. Is this the Irwin L. Jacobs, the fabled corporate raider who became conspicuously wealthy during the 1980's by buying huge chunks of troubled companies like Kaiser Steel, Walt Disney and Castle & Cooke (the parent of Dole Foods), threatening them with takeovers or management changes, and then selling out to higher bidders? Is this the man dubbed "Irv the Liquidator" for the way he dismantled companies that he did manage to buy, like the industrial and leisure-goods giant AMF Inc.? Wasn't Irwin Jacobs known for pestering powerful chief executives like Rand Araskog of ITT, whose conglomerate he wanted to break up, not underlings at obscure companies like Watkins, about what they are doing to build the business?

Mark Jacobs