The nation's biggest motorboat builder, privately owned Chris-Craft Corp., has long been considered a catch by merger-minded corporations. Both Singer Manufacturing Co. and Brunswick-Balke-Collender Co. recently made offers to Chris-Craft Chairman Harsen Alfred Smith (TIME cover, May 18, 1959). This week the prize was won by NAFI Corp. (formerly National Automotive Fibres), which has diversified into oil and television. The price: $40 to $45 million in cash. NAFI is controlled by the Wall Street brokerage firm of Shields & Co., one of whose partners is famed Yachtsman Cornelius ("Corny'') Shields Sr....
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