Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

by Bryan Burrough

Soon Mr. RJ went even further, creating a “Class A” stock—known locally as anticipation stock—designed to put all voting power in the hands of the workers. It paid an extraordinarily rich dividend: 10 percent of all profits in excess of $2.2 million. Workers clamored for the new issue, and many used their salaries to buy all the Class A they could. The annual dividend payment became a kind of local holiday, a time local car dealers and luxury purveyors eagerly awaited. The story was told of a Winston-Salem tyke who received a horde of presents on Christmas morning, only to begin weeping uncontrollably. He said he’d had his heart set on Class A stock.