The Sunbeam Corporation's products have little relevance for our marketplace since few specialty retailers sell Oster blenders or Mr. Coffee beverage makers.  The connection to the pop culture retailer comes from Sunbeam's principal shareholder, financier Ronald Perelman, whose tumultuous tenure at Marvel has touched nearly every player in our market.

The story of Sunbeam's predicament is familiar -- a company with good products crushed under the weight of a gigantic $2.6 billion dollars in debt brought on by ill-considered acquisitions.  Ironically in this instance, Perelman is not responsible for the debt.  Disgraced corporate turnaround specialist 'Chainsaw' Al Dunlap actually incurred the onerous overload as Sunbeam CEO when he purchased the Coleman Company from Perelman's umbrella holding company-- MacAndrews & Forbes--in 1998.  As a result of the acquisition, Perelman became Sunbeam's chief stockholder.  Dunlap then compounded the company's problems with some creative accounting that reported sales figures better than they actually were.

When Dunlap was embroiled in his reporting fiasco, Perelman managed to get Jerry Levin, who had been CEO of Coleman and Revlon (both Perelman-controlled companies), to replace him.  Levin has been unable to turn Sunbeam around, and faced with deteriorating cash flow he has had to seek the refuge of Chapter 11 bankruptcy.  Like some other companies we all know, Sunbeam is a victim of the 'art of the (ill-considered) deal.'