alternatehistory.com

This is crossposted on the Ark, but I decided to put it here as well.

March 20, 1923

Wall Street financier William K.B. Emerson, a rising star on Wall Street, begins assembling a group of investors for an audacious plan: a takeover by proxy (what will be referred to in later years as a "hostile takeover") of the New York Central Railroad from the Vanderbilt family, who have dominated the board and management of the railroad since its inception.

April 3, 1923

Emerson's proxy fight is in full swing. As his investment consortium rapidly purchases NYC stock, his allies are contacting shareholders and urging them to vote the Vanderbilts off the board of directors, insisting that the railroad's earnings are far less than their potential given the NYC's superior routes in the Eastern United States. The Vanderbilts are aware of what is going on, but in their complacency, they assume that their six-decades-old dominance of the railroad could not possibly be challenged. Their complacency will be their undoing, as Emerson's allies quietly line up proxies.

May 8, 1923

A special NYC shareholders' meeting is called for May 15.

May 15, 1923

By a narrow margin, the proxy vote ousts the Vanderbilt interests. Emerson is installed as chairman of the board. He appoints one of his minions as president of the railroad, but this person is clearly a rubber-stamp figure; the real power will reside with Emerson.

And it will soon become clear that Emerson is not interested in railroading.
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