Big deals: Indiana's top 20 mergers and acquisitions in 2002.

• Author: Kaelble, Steve
• Position: Special Feature

For yet another year, Indiana was on the losing end in the tally of major mergers and acquisitions in 2002. Of the 20 biggest deals announced last year, only five featured Indiana companies making bids for out-of-state targets, while a dozen of the deals had out-of-state firms on the acquiring end.

But as usual, the list of big deals included some silver linings. For one thing, the top two deals involved Indiana giants seeking to solidify their industry positions elsewhere in the country. Two of the state's banking companies continued to survive and grow in the competitive financial services industry. An Indiana steelmaker further boosted its standing in an otherwise dismal sector. And Indiana gained a public-company headquarters in one of the deals.

Heading the list, compiled by researchers at Mergerstat, is Anthem Inc.'s $4.2 billion acquisition of Virginia-based Trigon Healthcare Inc. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield affiliate on the East Coast brought 2.2 million customers to Indianapolis-based Anthem, the nation's fifth largest publicly traded health-benefits company. As the Blue Cross and Blue Shield licensee in nine states, Anthem now has more than 10 million members.

Second on the list is the hostile bid that Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group made for Taubman Centers Inc. of Michigan. Simon, a real-estate investment trust that is the nation's leading shopping center developer and operator, was rebuffed in friendly merger talks and subsequently made a bid for outstanding Taubman shares at a price higher than they had ever traded. At year-end and at press time for this issue it was unclear whether Simon's bid would succeed.

Berry Plastics Corp., a major Evansville-based producer of injection-molded and thermoformed plastics, changed hands in 2002. An investor group led by GS Capital Partners 2000--a private equity investment fund managed by Goldman Sachs & Co. of New York--acquired Berry Plastics for $837.5 million, a deal that was Indiana's third-biggest last year. Also part of the investor group were JPMorgan Partners and Berry's management team. The former owners were First Atlantic Capital, JPMorgan Partners and Aetna Life Insurance Co.

Indianapolis-based homebuilder Crossmann Communities Inc. became a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA Inc. in 2002. Crossmann is a major regional builder, operating in Indiana and five other states. Beazer is one of the nation's top 10 single-family homebuilders, with...