Robert Cole, a former New York Times business journalist known for his coverage of corporate mergers and acquisitions in the 1970s and 1980s, died last month, according to a Times obituary.
He last wrote for the Times in July 1991, when he covered the stock market.
The story states, “Mr. Cole was known for chasing down news of the corporate takeovers and leveraged buyouts that dominated the financial pages for much of the late 20th century, gaining a reputation along the way for bluntness and, often, irascibility. His coverage in 1984 of Chevron’s acquisition of the Gulf Corporation, the largest merger ever at the time, drew particular note.
“‘He really honed the craft of merger and acquisition reporting,’ Dean Rotbart, a historian of business journalism, said in an interview on Tuesday. ‘He was king of the hill for a long period of time.’
“The Journalist and Financial Reporting, a combination magazine and newsletter that Mr. Rotbart edited, named Mr. Cole one of the dozen most influential business journalists of the 1980s. He won a Loeb award for beat reporting in 1985.”
Read more here.Â
