So what were you doing 25 years ago this month? For that matter, the entire 1986-1990 period?

All those years ago I was covering the wild-west show that was tire industry consolidation. Marriages of desire, partnerships of convenience, pairings that were forced by concerned parents.

Just two years after Sir James Goldsmith took his lucrative (as in “looting”) run at Goodyear, it seemed that U.S. makers and their brethren in Europe and Japan couldn’t keep from eyeballing each other. Everyone wanted to outdo the other, and at the end of it, the lust and lucre spun out of control.

But what happened 25 years ago this month set the stage for much of the industry we have today.

In early February 1988, building on their previous relationship and partnership, Bridgestone Corp. offered what was then an astounding $1.25 billion for a 75% share in Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.’s tire manufacturing operations worldwide. That was a jaw-dropping first salvo in a series of events that would entangle much of the rest of the global industry.

Pirelli also had the desire to broaden its footprint, and placed a $1.86 billion – $58 per share – counter offer on the table for Firestone shareholders to chew on. I remember the airwaves and the pages of the Akron Beacon Journal being full of pro- and anti-deal sentiment, and a great deal of “can you believe this” commentary. Firestone workers didn’t know what to think, except that their shareholdings (if they participated in the company’s stock program) stood to double overnight.

But Pirelli planned to divest the Firestone network of 1,500 tire and auto service centers and much of the non-tire business. Chairman John Nevin and the Firestone board didn’t think that was the best interests of shareholders, so they turned down Pirelli’s unsolicited offer.

Rather than allow Pirelli to retool its purchase offer, in mid-March 1988 Bridgestone went to the mat with an unbelievable $80-per-share offer for the entirety of Firestone. The entire business worldwide, for $2.6 billion.

The deal was accepted, and nothing was ever the same.

I remember covering the May 1988 meeting where Firestone shareholders overwhelmingly approved the sale to Bridgestone. I remember when Bridgestone chairman Akira Yeiri spoke to dozens upon dozens of shareholders and employees, who cheered his speech wildly.

I remember a representative group of Firestone employees coming out on the stage to personally thank Bridgestone for having such faith in them and the struggling company. I remember standing in the lobby of the auditorium where the meeting was held and watching dozens upon dozens of newly minted millionaires walk out the door, each wearing the biggest smile possible without pulling a muscle.

And I remember Yeiri’s ill-fated, oft-repeated statement that Bridgestone’s massive buyout – a world record payout at the time – was a “merger of equals,” that the two were partners rather than the buyer and the bought. I remember how that phrase echoed for some time as Firestone and then Bridgestone-Firestone stumbled and heaved for years, at one point losing an estimated $1 million a day.

During that same mid-1980s period we saw a seriously weakened Uniroyal and a downtrodden BFGoodrich hook up to create Uniroyal-Goodrich Tire Co. Two years later, the still-struggling UGT was bought by Michelin North America.

Continental AG bought General Tire & Rubber Co. from GenCorp. Yokohama Rubber Corp. bought Mohawk Rubber Co. Pirelli bought Armstrong Tire & Rubber Co. Mergers were all the rage, and by 1990 it was done.

Twenty-five years is a long time, and a lot has happened to all of the players since. Some names exist only as brands, some have been made extinct, and others have been revived.  

And some of us are still hanging around.