European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - June 23, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 18 the stars and stripes monday june 23, 1986 today s crossword eur or or that is the question by William Safire the Zirbs arc moving in. No i am not using a clipped version of labor arbitrators nor trying to pronounce arabs in a single syllable nor clandestinely using inc acronym for Angle rate bombing system. The orbs arc the arbitrageurs who have taken the place of bal a million Gates in the corporate Crapshoot. A Call came in to Lehman Brothers from an arb and was transferred to me said Dennis b. Lovinc 10 the securities and a Chan a commission before being charged with insider trading. So the arb Gol on and said Are you Guys involved in text Ron " the first use of this shortened locution i can find is in a glossary of takeover terminology in us siness week May 16, 1977. The writer denied arbitrageurs As Slack Market professionals who buy up huge quantities of a target s shares at prices below the takeover  arbs apparently buy up rather than merely buy this buying is encouraged by the group seeking to Lake Over a company because it puts Large blocks of Stock in the hands of Short term speculators the arbs Are usually the natural allies of the takeover crowd. Curiously the glossary used the Short form arb Only in passing but tic clip turned out to be As Hardy As the whole word. Readers of this space bought at the Low such phrases As Poison Pill a device to mate takeovers More difficult and White Knight a Friendly suitor who will guarantee nervous manage ment Platinum parachutes in the past decade other Wall Street nonce phrases have withered such As Gray Knight an opportunistic second bidder smoking gun