New Britain herald., 1916-06-15
MOTOR MERGER PLAN ABANDONED ATLAST
Clayton Law May Have Been
 Partly Responsible

New York, June 16.-Announce- ment is made that the plans for the organization of new s25O,000,O ,O0O motor car company in which would be merged the ilIys-Overland com pany, Chalmers Motor Company Hud- son Motor company and Auto-Lite company, have fallen through and that the project has been abandoned.
 In conservative circles in the finan- cial district the news was received as an agreeable surprise, as there has been considerable criticism of the proposed merger in that an under writing syndicate had been formed and that the price at which the stock was to be issued to the public had been tentatively decided and subscrip- tions solicited before an authoritative statement about the concern had been made While the most satisfactory reason for the abandonment of the plan advanced by the interests con- sidering it was "complications," it was generally accepted in Wall street that banking opposition proved the real stumbling block.
 In some circles men who were in the financial district many years ago drew attention to the fact that to a certain extent the proposed company recalled the famous blind pool" of the early '80s. Men subscribed to that pool without knowing what they were buying.
 Willys' Statement. John N. Willys, who had been a prime mover in the negotiations along with the Durant-Kaufman interests, issued the following statement yester- 1 days: l Because of complications the pro- 1 posed motor consolidation has been 1 abandoned. Therefore the Willys- Overland company the Hudson Motor car company, the Chalmers Motor Car company and the Auto-Lite com- pany will continue to operate inde- l pendently."
 The following statement was added | later:
 "The application for participation in the underwriting was very largely i in excess of the amount of stock which 1t was proposed to syndicate which amount was fully covered by advance subscriptions after allowing for stock withdrawn for sale" MT. Willys said also that he was ready to go into the new company but only on a cash basis, and that he did not want stock in exchange 1 for his holdings in the Willys-Over- land.
 In well informed quarters it was said that the announcement of the proposed merger was entirely too pre-. mature, while in others it was said ! that the time chosen was not pro- pitious. It is understood that the decision to abandon the f1otation e the new company, which in conservl tive circles was considered as too heavily capitalized, was reached on 1 Tuesday evening at a meeting of the i interests promoting it. Those who were in a position to know said that legal difficulties in addition to financial l difficulties were discussed and that l among these the Clayton law was pre- dominant.
 A member of the syndicate said yesterday: "The legal difficulties were | not insurmountable but it was decid- ed that the formation of the new conf pany should not continue" He ad- ded that the plan was abandoned more because of an excess of caution on the part of those concerned than 1 for any other reason.
 When the Willys announcement was made public there was a severe break , in Willys-Overland stock on the Stock Exchange at the opening. The stock closed the preceding day at 305, opened yesterday at 279 and later sold as low as PIT, closing at 288 IA, the high for the day. On the curb Chevrolet opened at 239, went as low as 23o and closed at 254 The merger, if concluded, would have brought together John N. Willys and W. c. Durant, two dominant f1g- 1 ures in the automobile world, and 1 those interests would have controlled the output of approximately 480,000 automobiles a year, which Is more 1 than one-third of the number turned | out in this country
 l It was intimated by interests in | close touch with those who took part 1 in the abandoned plan that before long other autom mobile interests may combine.