Peace in San Francisco

All of a dither last month were San Francisco financial circles over the well-authenticated report that potent Banker Amadeo Peter Giannini had testily refused to list a new issue of Transamerica Corp. stock on the San Francisco Exchange until benign President Frank Shaughnessy resigned (TIME, Aug. 16). Since Transamerica for years had been the busiest stock on the San Francisco Exchange, this gave brokers, already scratching for commissions, a real matter for worry. The squabble grew out of old "A. P.'s" decision to turn Transamerica, once the world's largest bank holding company, into an investment trust. One move of this program was a splicing of Transamerica stock, one share for two, reclassined from no par to $2 par. When the San Francisco Exchange took occasion to criticize this maneuver, "A. P." did not apply for a continuance of Transamerica's listing.

All this was raw material for a very pretty business feud, but President Shaughnessy declined to make it into a finished product. He kept his head, kept his own counsel and kept Transamerica on the board through a temporary technicality. By last week this breathing spell had cooled everybody off. The Exchange gracefully came down off its high horse, "requested" the listing; "A. P." as gracefully agreed. President Shaughnessy remained in office and San Francisco's brokers strode down Nob Hill jauntily once more.

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