Masters of the Universe: Winning Strategies Of America's Greatest Deal Makers

by Daniel J. Kadlec

The names are legendary . . . Sandy Weill . . . Sumner Redstone . . . Carl Icahn . . . Hugh McCoII . . .

The stories are as fresh as today's headlines . . . Citicorp and Travelers Group . . . NationsBank and BankAmerica . . . Cendant . . .

Here, for the first time, you can meet the men and the minds that have ignited the greatest decade of deal making in the history of business.

In the 1980s Tom Wolfe coined the term "masters of the universe" for Wall Street's elite. Then deal makers were pioneering the leveraged buyouts and corporate raiding techniques of that colorful era. Times have changed, tactics have changed. But today merger and acquisition activity goes on at a rate far greater than anything seen in the eighties. To date the nineties have produced an incredible $8 trillion in mergers and acquisitions worldwide, compared to only $2.4 trillion in the so-called decade of greed.

Wolfe's phrase is even more apt today for the deal makers you are about to meet in this book.

These are strong, smart, visionary men of business who see what others do not, who act as others cannot, who have the will, the drive, the ambition to make their deals and drive their companies to heights that the rest of us can only envy--and learn from.

Nine of today's most powerful masters of the universe are profiled in these pages by Time magazine's Wall Street columnist Daniel J. Kadlec. Each of these top guns sat for extensive interviews, as Kadlec quizzed them about their greatest deal and the strategies they used to pull it off: the critical elements they saw that made the deal worth doing, and, ultimately, how they got the deal done.

The result is a penetrating, incisive portrait of business as it is done at the highest level, with fascinating insights and lessons for each of us. Inside you'll meet:




Hugh McColl, with his gripping tale of buyingBankAmerica


Sandy Weill, on how he pulled offthe Citicorp-Travelers merger


Stephen Bollenbach, on the rocky road to breaking up Marriott Corp.


Carl Icahn, with the inside story of his showdown with Texaco


Gary Wilson, on buying Northwest Airlines


Ted Forstmann, as he recounts surviving and then thrivingwith Gulfstream


Joe Rice, on his signature deal carving Lexmark out of IBM


Henry Silverman, as he relates his groundbreaking purchase of Avis


Sumner Redstone, with his farsighted deal for Viacom
Superbly written, always engrossing, and filled with the drama of great events and sensational deeds, Masters of the Universe will open your eyes to the brave new world of deal makers and deal making.



And Here's a Sample of What the Masters Themselves Reveal About Their Deal-Making Strategies

"Stay in one room. . . . Lock all the doors. Don't eat. Don't drink.Don't go to the bathroom until you've got a deal."-- Hugh McColl"Any number of wonderful deal guys will tell you how important price is when you're buying a company. But I will guarantee you that it's not that important. . . . You buy the wrong business at 25 percent less than you should pay for it and you take a little longer to go broke. You buy the right business at 25 percent more than you should pay, and you make five times your money instead of six."

-- Ted Forstmann

304 pages, Hardcover

First published May 30, 2000

Reviews

[Christopher DuMont · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting business book - all about deal making. The details are very thin but the characters the author interviewed are very interesting. It is a very quick and relatively light read - but you have to be interested in business.

[Chris Paul · Rating 2 out of 5]

Author comes off as a bit of a groupie to these 80's and 90's deal makers. Most of these deals proved themselves to be bad ideas. Some were successful in the long run. Deals and background were interesting.

[Paul Mullins · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book easy to read. Love Carl Icahn story.