`Barbarians' Revisited

In 1988, when leveraged buyout artists Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. began their historic takeover battle for RJR Nabisco Inc., the specter of the "barbarians at the gate" seizing control of one of the country's preeminent companies made celebrities out of Henry R. Kravis and George R. Roberts and spawned a best-selling book. Valued at some $25 billion, it remains the largest LBO ever.

On Mar. 20, when Goldman, Sachs & Co. succeeded in quietly selling the last of KKR's shares in the company, the reaction was considerably more muted. RJR Nabisco Chief Executive Charles M. Harper, in a just-issued annual report, trumpeted the end of "the leveraged buyout era at RJR Nabisco," but the company says it did nothing special to mark the occasion. And over at KKR, "there was no commemoration" of the two companies' parting, says a spokeswoman.