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Summary: Barbarians Smokes
Review: BARBARIANS AT THE GATES smokes. It is a magnificent journalistic study of corporate America during the Age of Reagan.
Burrough and Helyar report on the efforts of RJR/Nabisco management to take their company private and how their actions led to one of the largest leveraged buyouts in American history. Hilarious story. Funny, but sadly true.
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Summary: Big Money Insanity
Review: The dot-com stock market insanity of 1999, followed by the dot-bomb fall in 2000, is eerily mirrored in this book from a decade earlier about big money, big egos, and raging insanity.Burroughs and Helyar tell the story of the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in gripping fashion, showing how greed and shortsightedness contributed to the biggest and worst-managed corporate takeover in history. The players: Salesman F. Ross Johnson of RJR vs. Henry Kravitz of KKR. Everything from a wild, rip-roaring potboiler novel is here: Secret deals, stock market manipulation, flouting of laws, surprise plot twists. All of it almost unbelievable, but all of it true. The next time you wonder about how people could have been taken in by internet companies with insane stock prices who blew through venture capital as if it were funny money, read this book. It's well worth your time, effort, and energy.
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Summary: FABULOUS !!!!
Review: Burrough and Helyar's account of the largest LBO of its time will keep you engrossed and in suspense. The writing is remarkably descriptive and comfortably interprets some of the most complex mechanics of high finance. If big business and Wall Street doesn't interest you, it will after you finish the first chapter of this excellent book. It is never dull and you'll want to read it again.
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Summary: Great book for anybody who loves a scandal.
Review: This book reads like a novel. Scandal and intrigue rule the day. It's a great look back how the LBO pigs of the 80s did their business. For a more up-to-date assesment of the investment banking swine I would advise folks to check out Monkey Business: Swinging Through the Wall Street Jungle. It's rough around the edges, but funny as hell.
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Summary: Who's in charge here?
Review: I read this book in 1990, and it remains the most impressive book on the business world I have ever read. Before I read this book, I thought the guys at the top had well-thought out plans and strategies for their companies - this book showed the flaw in that thinking. It was entertaining and an exciting book that exposed the reality of Wall Street and big business. It is the end of innocence for those who think strategic planning matters and thoughtful people are in charge somewhere.
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Summary: Greed is Good!
Review: One of the best books on business ever written. Reads like a novel as the authors tell the behind the scenes story of the fight for control of RJR Nabisco. More than enough intrigue and backstabbing for a superior mystery. The book untangles the maze of dealings that went into the biggest leveraged buyout of its day. Amazing greed and even more amazing financial maneurverings. And easily understandable by readers who are not into stocks, bonds and financing. Superior book! After reading the book, see the HBO video which satirizes the greed and dealings to perfection.
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Summary: Unbeatable Reporting of the RJR Leveraged Buy Out
Review: If you want to understand Wall Street of the 1980's read this book, "Den of Thieves" by Stewart and "Predator's Ball" by Bruck. This book is an all encompassing depiction of the events that led to the first leveraged-buy out (meaning they used debt, in the form of massive loans, and not just equity or stock), the debut of KKR as a major financial power, and the emergence of "shareholder value" as a buzzword that no CEO will fail to keep in mind. The authors were both Wall Street Journal reporters who wrote the book in much the same way as they would report- direct to the point, clearly explained, and with little detectable bias as to the fate of the major characters. I very much enjoy this style of writing, if every WSJ reporter were to write a book, I would be there to support them. The book does a great job of explaining in detail the egregious excess of Nabisco during CEO Johnson's stint at the helm. In this day of clipped expense accounts and flying coach for business, the presence of a "Nabisco Air-Force" of jets and professional athletes and celebrities on the pay-roll is difficult to imagine. The authors do a good job of transitioning from these descriptions into the dirty details of how the deal was put together. The scenes where the transaction is coming together at the final hour, through all of the negotiations and threats, are well-told, I could actually feel the tension and angst in the room. Read this book. When you're done with it go pick up "Den of Thieves" and "Predator's Ball."
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Summary: LBO nr 1
Review: Great book about the real public to private activities of private equity firms. Nice to see that the investment bankers are again not very reliable partners...
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Summary: Great read
Review: The detail of this book is incredible. Burrough and Helyar have every angle of this extraordinary LBO accounted for, down to specific dialogue. It's an incredible account of high-powered executive greed, and how it is dictated by excessive pride, or hubris.
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Summary: True tale of big deals, trophy wives, high living in 80s.
Review: Better than "Bonfire of the Vanities"--which was a hoot nonetheless--because it's all true. The authors managed somehow to get in-depth interviews with nearly all the people whose stories they tell here. This book gives you an informed inside look at one of the biggest corporate deals in American history. Business students and business leaders will find in it an unvarnished look at a leveraged buyout and how the personal and corporate dramas of the key players rippled through the economy of the late 1980s. But you don't necessarily have to be interested in IPOs, LBOs, and other Wall Street activities to enjoy it. I bought it just to read about Carolyne Rhoeme and Henry Kravis and the way they took Manhattan by storm there for awhile (I think they're divorced now and she's left the fashion business to do high-end floral consulting--nice work if you can get it, right?) Beyond the fun, though, many innocent people paid a high price for the boardroom wars between Kravis and Johnson. As one person said after it was all said and done, "I no longer work for a company, but an investment." And she left it rather than move yet again because she sensed it was only about the bottom line. The last sentence in the book is a question that every ethical businessperson should ask before putting a company into play the way Ross Johnson did.
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