The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co. - Hardcover

Cohan, William D

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385514514 ISBN 13: 9780385514514

Publisher: Doubleday Books, 2007

Synopsis

A grand and revelatory portrait of Wall Street s most storied investment bank
Wall Street investment banks move trillions of dollars a year, make billions in fees, pay their executives in the tens of millions of dollars. But even among themost powerfulfirms, Lazard Freres & Co. stood apart. Discretion, secrecy, andsubtle strategy were its weapons of choice. Formore than a century, the mystique and reputation of the "Great Men" who worked there allowed the firm to garner unimaginable profits, social cachet, and outsized influence in the halls of power. But in the mid-1980s, their titanic egos started getting in the way, and the Great Men of Lazard jeopardized all they had built.
William D. Cohan, himself a former high-level Wall Street banker, takes the reader into the mysterious and secretive world of Lazard andpresents acompelling portraitof Wall Street through thetumultuous historyof this exalted and fascinating company. Cohan deconstructs the explosive feuds between Felix Rohatyn and Steve Rattner, superstar investment bankers and pillars of New York society, and between the man who controlled Lazard, the inscrutable French billionaire Michel David-Weill, and his chosen successor, Bruce Wasserstein.
Cohan follows Felix, the consummate adviser, as he reshapes corporate America in the 1970s and 1980s, saves New York City from bankruptcy, and positions himself in New York society and in Washington. Felix s dreams are dashed after the arrival of Steve, a formidable and ambitious former newspaper reporter.By the mid-1990s, as Lazard neared its 150th anniversary, Steve and Felix were feuding openly.
The internal strife caused by their arguments could not be solved by the imperious Michel, whose manipulative tendencies served only to exacerbate the trouble within the firm. Increasingly desperate, Michel took the unprecedented step of relinquishing operational control of Lazard to one of the few Great Men still around, Bruce Wasserstein, then fresh from selling his own M&A boutique, for $1.4 billion. Bruce s take: more than $600 million.But it turned out Great Man Bruce had snookered Great Man Michel when the Frenchman was at his most vulnerable.
The LastTycoons is a tale of vaulting ambitions, whispered advice, worldly mistresses, fabulous art collections, and enormous wealth a story of high drama in the world of high finance.

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About this title

Review:

"Cohan's portrayal of the firm's dominant partners--whose gargantuan appetites and mercurial habits provide the unifying force behind the book's operatic melodramas-- makes this an epic . . . In fact, " The Last Tycoons" bears a striking resemblance to F. Scott Fitzgerald's" The Last Tycoon.""
"--New York Times Book Review
"
"Breezy and highly readable . . . For those of us who enjoy high-level gossip (most people) and an inside look at the machinations, triumphs, failures, and foibles of some of Wall Street's and America's most exalted personages, Cohan's book is entertaining and seductively engrossing."
--"Chicago Tribune"
"Cohan's thoroughness--he interviewed over 100 current and former bankers and assorted bigwigs--unearths a trove of colourful titbits, many quite racy . . . Illuminating are Mr. Cohan's descriptions of the scheming, politicking, and general dysfunction that was Lazard."
"--Economist"
"Cohan not only knows where the bodies are buried but got a guided tour of the graveyard."
"--Financial Times
"
"["The Last Tycoons"] has sent a jolt through Lazard and the rest of Wall Street."
"--Wall Street Journal"

"From the Trade Paperback edition."

Cohan s portrayal of the firm's dominant partners whose gargantuan appetites and mercurial habits provide the unifying force behind the book s operatic melodramas makes this an epic . . . In fact, The Last Tycoons bears a striking resemblance to F. Scott Fitzgerald s The Last Tycoon.
New York Times Book Review

Breezy and highly readable . . . For those of us who enjoy high-level gossip (most people) and an inside look at the machinations, triumphs, failures, and foibles of some of Wall Street s and America s most exalted personages, Cohan s book is entertaining and seductively engrossing.
Chicago Tribune
Cohan's thoroughness he interviewed over 100 current and former bankers and assorted bigwigs unearths a trove of colourful titbits, many quite racy . . . Illuminating are Mr. Cohan s descriptions of the scheming, politicking, and general dysfunction that was Lazard.
Economist
Cohan not only knows where the bodies are buried but got a guided tour of the graveyard.
Financial Times

[The Last Tycoons] has sent a jolt through Lazard and the rest of Wall Street.
Wall Street Journal

From the Trade Paperback edition."

About the Author:

WILLIAM D. COHAN, a former award-winning investigative newspaper reporter in Raleigh, North Carolina, worked on Wall Street for seventeen years. He spent six years at Lazard Freres in New York and later became a managing director at JP Morgan Chase. He lives in New York City and Columbia County, New York."

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0385514514
• ISBN 13: 9780385514514
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 742