The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co. | A Tale of Unrestrained Ambition, Billion-Dollar Fortunes, Byzantine Power Struggles, and Hidden Scandal
Written by William Cohan
Narrated by David Aaron Baker
4/5
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About this audiobook
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 the most powerful firms, Lazard Frères & Co. stood apart. Discretion, secrecy, and subtle strategy were its weapons of choice. For more 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 and presents a compelling portrait of Wall Street through the tumultuous history of 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 Last Tycoons 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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Reviews for The Last Tycoons
46 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Like the House of Lazard, this book is built around Great Men: the patrician Andre Meyer, the proud David David-Weill, the wily Bruce Wasserstein, but above all Felix Rohatyn, the pre-eminent financier of his era. The author adds three things which characterise the best reportage: access, insight, and an exemplary ability to transport us into their world.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A fascinating history of Lazard, an American investment bank, full of huge egos, dodgy deals and billions of dollars.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A good read, not as riveting or entertaining as Liars poker or other great reads of the 90's (all those Enron, wall st books). But its not boring and if you know people in that business, its a decent to good read.