The Deal Maker: How William C. Durant Made General Motors - Hardcover

Madsen, Axel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0471283274 ISBN 13: 9780471283270

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons, 1999

Synopsis

William C. Durant built General Motors and contributed significantly to the growth of the world-wide automotive industry. This book presents the story of Durant's life and career. From a position of bringing together 25 firms under the GM banner in 1910, Durant subsequently lost his fortune on the Stock Market and died a poor man.

About this title

From the Back Cover

The roller-coaster life of the flamboyant creator of General Motors

William C. Durant did big things the big way: he overreached, but, until his final failure, he picked up the pieces time after time to confound his competitors. From a turbulent childhood in the small town of Flint, Michigan, to his phenomenal success in creating General Motors, Durant's meteoric career easily rivals the success stories of modern legends like Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates. With his trademark smile and personal charisma, Durant assembled General Motors in a few short years, buying companies at the rate of one every thirty days. Durant's deal-making artistry even tempted Henry Ford, and had Durant upped his acquisition price Ford would be a division of GM today.

Durant's story illuminates the conflict between innovation and control of innovation --of the uneasy alliances struck again and again between inventors and their sources of capital. His years of heady success building General Motors were marked by epic struggles with bankers. But he depended on only a few sources of big money to finance his exploding business, and pitted himself against forces he underestimated or refused to consider. Gambling on a run on GM stock, he was finally forced into a buyout that ousted him from his role in the GM empire.

Into the dramatic tale of this early twentieth-century mogul come the fascinating automotive pioneers --Henry Ford, David Buick, Charles Nash, Albert Champion, Louis Chevrolet, and Alfred P. Sloan. On Wall Street, J. P. Morgan turned down Durant's request for a loan while Pierre du Pont invested in Durant's expansion. Tracing the fortunes of a man and his era, The Deal Maker is a fast-paced, rousing tale of Durant's dizzying success and ultimate failure.

Edition details

• Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0471283274
• ISBN 13: 9780471283270
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320