At the end of four years of heavy losses, Underwood Corp., once the leader of the U.S. typewriter industry, needed help in a hurry. It came last fall from Italy's progress-minded Olivetti company, biggest European maker of typewriters and calculating machines; it purchased 34% of Underwood's stock for $8,700,000. When Underwood's President Frank Beane made the deal, he expected to keep running the company. But the late Adriano Olivetti and his successor Giuseppe Pero (TIME, March 21) had different ideas of the way to cure Underwood's troubles. Out went Beane and most...
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