JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Behind every diamond engagement ring, every multicarat expression of true love, once loomed the imperious shadow of De Beers, the cartel that controlled — and, some argue, created — the international diamond industry.

        But with the cartel's grip over the trade weakening, De Beers has spent a year undergoing revolutionary changes.

        Today, De Beers will drop off the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, all of its stockholders will be bought out by the consortium that just acquired it, and it will become a private company for the first time in more than a century. The move will allow it to be more flexible — and more secretive about its strategies.

A rough diamond from a mine in Gaberone, Botswana, is appraised, starting it on its journey to being cut and sold. (Associated Press photo) | ZOOM |

        De Beers plans to enter the retail industry, reform its inefficient bureaucracy, continue selling off its massive diamond stockpile and, perhaps most important, abandon its efforts to rule the diamond trade.

        As recently as 1990, De Beers controlled almost 85 percent of the rough diamond trade.

        Since then, mines in Australia have become more independent. Diamonds have been found in Canada. And De Beers' dominance in Africa has been challenged by other companies.

        The company was founded by British tycoon Cecil Rhodes to consolidate the frontier world of diamond mining in South Africa.

        Under Ernest Oppenheimer, grandfather of current chairman Nicky Oppenheimer, the firm fashioned itself into the custodian of the entire industry.

        In May, shareholders agreed to accept a buyout offer from a consortium of mining giant Anglo American, the Oppenheimer family and Debswana, a diamond company jointly owned by De Beers and the government of Botswana.
       

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