The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Fr?res & Co. |  | Author: William Cohan
Publisher: Anchor
Category: eBooks
In Stock
Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 34,230
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Pages: 752
Number Of Items: 1
Dewey Decimal Number: 332.660944
ASIN: B000P28WVC
Publication Date: April 3, 2007
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Product Description
A grand and revelatory portrait of Wall Streetâs 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. Felixâs 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.
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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. Bruceâs 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.Â
The LastTycoons is a tale of vaulting ambitions, whispered advice, worldly mistresses, fabulous art collections, and enormous wealthâa story of high drama in the world of high finance.Â
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
 barbarians at the gates of central park May 19, 2007
B. Jones (Phila. PA)
29 out of 29 found this review helpful
maybe the first casualty of wealth is self-knowledge. that is the takeaway from William Cohan's fine history of the fabled lazard freres banking house. in these pages we watch titans of finance gloat and preen while their castle crumbles from corruption and mismanagement.
Its a terrific story peopled with fascinating characters. who wouldn't, after reading this book, want to dine with the formidable felix rohatyn. He fled the Nazis as a boy, rescued New York from financial ruin and ditched Lazard at just the right moment to serve the nation as Bill Clinton's Ambassador to France. His intellect and achievement dominate the book, just as Felix dominated wall street for a generation. His departure from the firm caps the end of "the great man" era in investment banking. In Rohatyn's day only a select handful of wise men could be trusted to guide transactions. Nowadays all you need is armani and a spread sheet.
Even as he maps the tectonic movement in investment banking, Cohan keeps it light with plenty of well-researched dish on criminal investigations, love affairs, fabulous art collections, New Yorkana and the occasional drop to earth by some of Lazard's wax-winged partners. I closed the book -- a whopping 750 pp's -- edified and thoroughly entertained.
Heir to the "Barbarians At The Gate" Throne May 4, 2007
Gaucho36 (wilton CT)
25 out of 26 found this review helpful
This book is a classic "insiders" look at the world of Wall Street and one of its most fabled and tortured partnerships (using the term very loosely given the way they treated each other). If you found the classic late 80s/early 90s books like Barbarians, Liars Poker and others riveting you will be right there again with this extremely well written book.
The level of cooperation the author received is amazing - the partners must all have been quite fearful of their potential portrayal and many of them have eagerly shared their recollections. Woven together these conversations create an incredibly detailed account of what happened and what the various parties were thinking (or scheming) about at various stages. Contrary to some of the other reviews here - I found the book not loaded with rumor but in fact studded with primary accounts.
With the exception of a very detailed review of Lazard's involvment with ITT the book moves at a brisk pace and I "inhaled" it over a couple of days. The ITT section is deeply researched and shows how close Rohaytan came to stepping on the third rail - but it is not the easiest section of the book to read. The final third of the book is absolutely fascinating as Cohan details the imperious Michel being trampled by the despicable Bruce Wasserstein. What goes around comes around.
To fully enjoy this book it helps to have some general awareness of Wall Street - but it is not essential. So much of what transpires is pure human theatre - greed, power,lust - that the setting is less relevant. These characters and their actions could just as easily been depicted by the Bard as by Cohan.
I'm not sure why some of the other reviews so far have been so pointed and critical (not to mention poorly written) - but from this reader with no axe to grind I can highly recommend this book.
Destined to be a Classic May 24, 2007
C. Wu (New York)
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Cohan has brought to life a vivid and spellbinding tale of the legendary giants in the investment banking field (Meyer, Rohatyn, David-Weill, Rattner, and Wasserstein) at Lazard, offering a compelling and revealing portrait of the relentless personalities that invented, dominated and defined the last few decades of M&A banking. At the same time, The Last Tycoons is, at its core, a saga of ambition, egotism, greed, vanity and pride of Shakespearean proportions played out on the grand stage of corporate takeovers and national politics.
What emerges is not a noble picture of what these ostensibly "Great Men" purported themselves to be. Instead, it is apparent that at Lazard, the black arts of power and greed were the currency used to exhort and extort men of high ambition and intellect to achieve stature and enormous fees. The long shadow of Andre Meyer (unquestionably a Sith Lord) looms over the Lazard partnership and his protégés and successors, Felix Rohatyn and Michel David-Weill. Meyer was a brilliant financier with no peer with the exception of Bruce Wasserstein and it's fitting and deserving that the story of Lazard begins and ends with these two men. In between, Michel and Felix weave a complex and fascinating legacy of fear and loathing in the intervening decades.
For bankers and professionals in the field, Cohan's detail and emotional and psychological nuances will be tantalizing and relevant. For those aspiring to enter the field, it's a cautionary tale - it's very hard to play on the big stage on Wall St without darkening your soul. This story is destined to be a Classic amongst Barbarians and Den of Thieves
Thorough and Completely Entertaining May 12, 2007
dukeno1 (Short Hills, NJ USA)
17 out of 23 found this review helpful
When Bill, an old friend, told me he was writing a book about Lazard, I thought, "Who will care?" I was ignorant. My only obligation was to buy the book, not to read it. Even if I had not known the author, I would not have been able to put this book down. Writing is a lonely pursuit, and the endless thought and organization, the hundreds of interviews on both sides of the Atlantic, the researching and re-drafting, all make the author's dedication, and the reader's, worthwhile.
Lazard was truly the first global Wall Street firm. Andre Meyer, the brilliant global pioneer, comes to life. Felix Rohatyn, away from the deserved platitudes, is complex; Michel David-Weill Machiavellian. Bruce Wasserstein, prototypically capitalist, can exist only on Wall Street. Steve Rattner alone comes across as someone for whom an investment banker would want to work. The rudderless leadership for decades, the infighting among the partners, the lack of organizational cohesion all bar the firm from the top tier. The extraordinary access Cohan had to the principals and many others suggest there was much to tell. Cohan's natural wit and cynicism spice the story.
Some have criticized the author for using secondary sources. As one who did not read many of those articles, I was delighted he included them. That Wasserstein alone did not cooperate further excuses Cohan from consulting secondary sources to complete the tale.
Excellent book, a real page-turner ... November 20, 2007
Schmitt (Paris, France)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book gives in-depth details of the history of this secretive and enigmatic bank.
The first part on the origins of Lazard as a dry goods company in New-Orleans, then San Francisco is interesting.
But the story gets truly riveting, when you get to see Lazard legendary M&A bankers in the day to day exercise of their craft.
The characters, André, Felix and Michel are bigger than life, and at times downright Machavielian.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 31
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