Chainsaw Al Dunlap Gets The Chop

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In hindsight, there were warnings. A Barron's article in the June 8 edition questioned Dunlap's accounting methods, and a FORTUNE article with the same date suggested that his job was in jeopardy. Another bell ringer might have been massive selling by insiders at Coleman in March, beginning only days after the company agreed to be bought by Sunbeam. The Coleman folks had to sell, or lose, their stock options. But by moving so quickly, they bolstered the view that Dunlap had grossly overpaid. Indeed, nine Coleman insiders, including Levin, cashed out 581,000 shares, according to CDA Investnet--near the post-merger peak and just ahead of the stock's collapse along with Sunbeam.

It wasn't supposed to end like this. Coleman and two smaller deals were part of Dunlap's plan to build and to prove he was more than a one-trick pony. But the circus left town without him, and he perhaps learned that restructuring a company and restructuring consumer demand are two very different tasks.

--With reporting by Valerie Marchant/New York and Tammerlin Drummond/Delray Beach