Yowza! Yowza! Yowza! Yet Another Block Buster
September 14, 2009 I don’t know if “They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?” was the worst movie I ever saw, but it’s in my top five. It was a critically acclaimed Academy Award winner, but would have been utterly forgettable for me except for one line from Gig Young’s character, Rocky: “Yowza! Yowza! Yowza!”
On August 6, the news broke that Dunavant Enterprises and Allenberg Cotton Co. were either in talks to merge the two companies, or preparing for Allenberg to buy Dunavant outright.
I was standing in a cotton field in Arkansas that day and didn’t hear about the goings on until I picked up the Memphis Commercial Appeal the next morning. What could I say but: “Yowza!” Then I spit Bloody Mary all over myself. Not really. I would have preferred a Bloody Mary to help me digest that news, but I had to settle for coffee. Which I spit all over myself.
This was not the first time in the last two years “blockbuster” could be used with “deal” in the business that is cotton.
The first would be Monsanto’s purchase of Delta and Pine Land Co. in 2007. There was really no suspense there – the two had been flirting with each other since 1998. D&PL was the world’s largest cotton seed company and Monsanto already owned Stoneville Pedigreed Seed Co., which was number two when talks began. Everyone knew the U.S. Department of Justice was going to take a dim view of Monsanto owning both and that Monsanto would be forced to sell Stoneville. And everyone was about 99% sure that Bayer CropScience would buy Stoneville. Bayer did. No “Yowzas!” there.
So we go once again to numbers one and two. Both billion-dollar merchant goliaths are just across Memphis from each other. For years, Dunavant was the world’s largest cotton merchandising company. But Dunavant was passed by ― you guessed it ― Allenberg.
You should know by the time this is in your hands whether it’s a merger or a buyout. I’m betting buyout. Whatever happens, the Dunavant name is gone and the Allenberg name remains. At the very moment I write this, some Dunavant employees are at Allenberg’s headquarters interviewing for positions.
The irony is not lost on me that the iconic Billy Dunavant for years gave the cotton report for the Ag Update sessions at the Mid-South Farm & Gin Show in Memphis. In 2006, Dunavant bid a tearful good-bye and was replaced by ― you guessed it ― Allenberg CEO Joe Nicosia.
And the irony is not lost on me that John Dunavant is the current president of the American Cotton Shippers Association. The immediate past president is ― you guessed it ― Joe Nicosia.
There have been three generations of Dunavants at the company. Billy Dunavant was the first U.S. cotton merchant to sell cotton to China. And he did it in 1973! What American cotton merchant doesn’t sell cotton to China now?
Asked what he and the two sons at the company would do now, Dunavant replied, “My boys want to do something different. I don’t want to do a dadgum thing.”
There have been four kings in Memphis that I know of: Elvis, Jerry Lawler, Willie Herenton (in his mind) and Billy Dunavant. None are on their thrones now. “Yowza!”
GET THE NEWSLETTER TODAY!
