Best of Boston

Smith played the White Knight and charged to the rescue of Carter Hawley Hale Stores for the second time in two years, thwarting the Limited’s second hostile takeover attempt on the Los Angeles company. All General Cinemas got for its corporate chivalry was a controlling interest in the fastest-growing and most profitable part of Carter Hawley’s entire operation: its $1.1 billion-a-year-specialty-store division, which includes Neiman-Marcus, Bergdorf Goodman, and Contempo Casuals.