Mergers: Places to Put Them

Good management requires the ability—and willingness—to profit by a rival's example. Thus, after watching Pan American build its subsidiary chain of Inter-Continental Hotels into a highly profitable operation, Trans World Airlines decided to take similar care of its own globetrotting passengers. Last week TWA President Charles C. Tillinghast Jr. and Conrad N. Hilton, chairman and president of Hilton International Co., announced that they had reached a preliminary merger agreement.

Hilton International, since 1964 a separate corporate entity from the domestic chain, operates 34 hotels, plus two Nile-plying cruise ships. The company has reported revenue increases...