Financial Strategy: Studies in the Creation, Transfer, and Destruction of Shareholder Value

by William E. Fruhan Jr.

This book describes how firms achieve entry into the Hall of Fame of American business. Managerial efforts aimed at enhancing shareholder wealth are a central concern in this book ... management motivations are not. The book is an exploration of the effect of management actions on security valuations.

Genres: Finance

301 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1979

Reviews

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best $23.00 I ever spent..technical but very interesting and informative

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fruhan's book was an early study on maximizing security valuations. The book gives examples of how shareholder value can be created, transferred, and destroyed, and goes on to present case histories of companies that actually experienced these events. Fruhan's book came out in 1979 and was underwritten by the Harvard Business School. Given the timing, it is interesting that the next decade - the 1980s - were rife with companies acquiring other firms in a frenzy of corporate activity that drove stock prices steadily up. Most of the deals in the 1980s were rarely cash transactions ... they were either stock deals or leveraged deals, which soon took on the moniker of junk debt. Fruhan's book sort of anticipated - and might have even encouraged - the financial strategies that were to come. Fruhan's book is an academic study, but one that is approachable by laymen. While the book is dated because of the intervening 30 years of financial activity, shareholder valuation remains the core of common stock financing. Good stuff.