Hostile Bids Rebuffed.

The civil world of banking has had a mere handful of hostile takeover plays over the years, but the latest was one of the nastiest yet. It ended with a victory for First Union Corp. and Wachovia Corp. in voting completed on Aug. 3. The two partners fended off a hostile bid for Wachovia from Atlanta-based SunTrust Corp., which had been talking on and off with the North Carolina bank about a merger for years.

The vote came after months of high-profile maneuvering and dueling full-page ads in The Wall Street Journal and other business publications. The campaigns, which cost each company many millions, even included TV spots.

Ordinarily in such battles, the company that offers institutional shareholders the best prospects is the winner. That usually means at least a slight premium in total price, and swings in share price during the battle often appear to give the upper hand to one party or the other -- though First Union's winning bid eventually ended up slightly lower.

Last year, Dime Bancorp of New York successfully fended off a hostile bid from smaller North Fork Bancorp., but had to work hard to do so. Its announced merger with Hudson United Bancorp. came apart, and Dime later moved aggressively to keep North Fork at bay. It hired a retired top banker as chairman, and brought in Warburg Pincus as a significant minority shareholder.

The results for Dime shareholders were little short of spectacular amid widespread carnage elsewhere on Wall Street. Dime's shares more than doubled between August 2000 and this past June, and climbed a bit more after it announced a deal to be acquired by thrift behemoth Washington Mutual Inc.