CEO uses acquisition strategy to grow companies
New England businessman Bradley Jacobs made nearly 500 acquisitions to create enormous trash hauling and equipment rental companies in the 1980s and '90s. Since 2011, he's used that same strategy to create a massive transportation and logistics services firm based in Greenwich, Connecticut, called XPO Logistics Inc. Jacobs' latest deal as chairman and CEO of XPO is the $3 billion all-cash acquisition of Ann Arbor-based Con-way Inc. announced Sept. 10 and expected to close in October. What the deal will immediately do is make XPO the second largest less-than-truckload shipper in North America, and fills a portfolio gap among its freight brokerage, intermodal and last-mile delivery services. "XPO Logistics has grown very fast and has become a real force in the industry," said John Taylor, chairman of the supply-chain management department at Wayne State University's School of Business.
