M&A Titans The Pioneers Who Shaped Wall Street's Mergers and Acquisitions Industry

by Cole, Brett

• ISBN13: 9780470126899
• ISBN10: 0470126892
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-09-29
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

This book focuses on the 11 men, lawyers and bankers, who are responsible for the creation of Wall Street's merger industry. It specifically concentrates on the events and personalities who dominated Wall Street during the takeover battles of the 1970s and 1980s. Lawyers Joe Flom and Marty Lipton, the godfathers of modern M&A, educated bankers on takeover laws and regulations as well as tactics. Flom and Lipton were also superlative businessmen who built their own firms to become Wall Street powerhouses. The two men drew into their orbit a circle of bankers. Felix Rohatyn, Ira Harris, Steve Friedman, Geoff Boisi, Eric Gleacher and Bruce Wasserstein were close to Lipton. Robert Greenhill and Joe Perella were close to Flom.M&A Titans provides insight into the culture of the different investment banks and how each of the bankers influenced the firms they worked in as they became more powerful. Some such as Gleacher, Harris, Wasserstein, Perella and Greenhill clashed with the men running their firms and left. Others such as Friedman and Boisi stayed and profoundly influenced how the firm did business. The career of Michael Milken, perhaps the notorious name on Wall Street in the 1980s, is also examined as well as the actions and tactics of his firm, Drexel Burnham Lambert. Milken and Drexel paved the way for the growth of private equity and helped popularize attacks on management by investors such as Boone Pickens and Carl Icahn.

Author Biography

BRETT COLE is a correspondent for The Economist covering political, economic, and financial developments in North and South Korea. Between 2003 and 2007, he reported on Wall Street while working for Bloomberg News in New York, Prior to 2003, he worked for the news agency in Japan, Taiwan, and Australia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
The Titans	p. xi
Remarks from Some M&A Titans and Players	p. xiii
Introduction	p. 1
Genesis: Wall Street, Its Business and Culture	p. 5
Godfathers-Flom and Lipton	p. 13
Seducers-Harris and Rohatyn	p. 23
Systematizer-Goldman Sachs	p. 31
Originators-Morgan Stanley	p. 43
Attack or Defend	p. 53
An Accountant, Feuds, and the Wasserstein Discovery	p. 67
The Cult of Greenhill, California	p. 85
Stovepipes	p. 93
Fall and Rise	p. 103
"The Genius Franchise"	p. 111
Stagnation and Implosion	p. 119
The Rise of Drexel	p. 129
Crime and Punishment	p. 139
A Voice in the Wilderness	p. 151
Intrigue and Resignations	p. 159
New Horizons	p. 171
Notes	p. 183
References	p. 211
About the Author	p. 215
Index	p. 217
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