Seagrams VO Gold!

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• History of Seagrams
  • Started by Joseph E Seagram in 1857 with 3 other guys
  • In 1883 he was sole owner
• Samual Bronfman and Distillers corporation limited
  • Distillers Corp was started by Samuel and his brothers in 1924
  • He came to the US to Tour shut down distilleries due to Prohibition and in 1923 he bought Greenbrier distillery for pennies on the dollar. He then dismantled it and moved it to LaSalle, Quebec
  • He would ship his whisky to Saint pierre off the coast of newfoundland
  • They would then bootleg the booze to the US through rum Rows to new york, New Jersey and other places
• Rum Rows were ships just outside of maritime jurisdiction (Three miles before 1924, 12 miles after)
• Took off around the caribbean first, but after canada start bringing in whiskey it got bigger. The largest rum runner area was outside new jersey
• In 1928, Bronfman acquired seagrams from heir and president edward F Seagram (Joseph had died in 1919)
• Bronfman was never convicted of any crimes during prohabition, but it is well understood that he had many mob connections
• In the 1930’s when they came into the American Market, they were fined $1.5 million to settle delinquent excise taxes. US Govit asked for $60 million
• In 1963 seagrams purchased Texas Pacific coal and Oil for $61 million cash, plus a production loan to granville minerals of $216 million
• Theyu sold this to Sun Oil Co in 1980 for 2.3 billion, nice work
• 1981, cash rich, they want to diversify, so they tried a takeover on conaco, but Dupont was brought in to stop it. Seagrams still gets a 32%share though, and after dupont wins the bid, they become a 24% shareholder
  • In 1995 seagrams is the largest shareholder and has 4 seats ont he board of dupont
  • 1986 they hire bruce willis to be the spokes person for their golden wine cooler. This takes them from 5th to 1st in distillery size in just 2 years
  • In 1995 Edgar Bonfman Jr, wants to get into the media business and needs cash.
• He sells their stakes in dupont (remember, largest shareholder) for $9 million
• He used the money to get controlling interest in MCA, who owned universal pictures and theme parks
• Seagrams sold its juice business they had acquired in 1988 in 1998 to pepsi for $3.1 billion
• In 2000, seagrams sold their entertainment division to Vivendi, and beverages to Pernod Richie and Diagio, coca-cola acquired the seagrams mixers
• In 2006, Pernod Richie closes seagrams distillery in Lawrenceburg indiana, In 2011 MGP purchased the distillery
• In a 2013 interview with The Globe and Mail, Charles Bonfman (uncle of Edgar Jr.) stated about the decisions leading to the demise of Seagram: "It was a disaster, it is a disaster, it will be a disaster. It was a family tragedy."
• The original seagrams distillery became the segrams museum in waterloo, ontario, closed due to lack of funds in 1997.
• Bought out and is now the hea

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