The last tycoons: the secret history of Lazard Frères & Co (136 page)

"get this on the table": Ibid.

"There was good attendance": Ibid.

"views were so far from reality": Ibid.

"So he turns to Jerry": Ibid.

"one by one, everybody": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"Then I will not go forward": Interview with Wilson, January 18, 2005.

"In response to these comments": Ibid.

"The next thing I know": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"a real revolution": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.

"This was a revolution": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

Wasserstein discussions:
WSJ
, May 2, 1997.

"Bruce describes it as like one": Interview with someone close to BW.

"The Lazard spin": Interview with Mike Biondi, December 12, 2005.

"Our perception was he didn't": Ibid.

"The Lazard thing broke down": Ibid.

"You've been around Michel for a long time": Ibid.

"Michel likes to do things": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Everybody said to Michel": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"reasonably interesting job": Ibid.

"I wasn't going to be": Ibid.

"long series of tortured negotiations": Ibid.

"we did actually write some stuff down": Ibid.

"The kinds of things": Ibid.

"You can't be president": Ibid.

"a terrific rainmaker, very well organized":
Euromoney
, January 2001.

"They gave me a vase": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.

"mantle as the firm's lead banker":
NYT
, May 23, 1997; and
Financial Times
, May 23, 1997.

"We wanted to both strengthen and broaden":
NYT
, May 23, 1997.

"Our goal is to take off": Ibid.

"The term 'Trinity' has been mentioned": Ibid.

"conspicuous table" and "fair-haired banker":
Newsweek
, June 9, 1997.

"These changes are about the firm": Ibid.

"Mr. Rattner is in an important": Ibid.

"Until things exist, they don't exist":
BusinessWeek
, June 9, 1997.

"Michel will be a little less": Ibid.

"This isn't an industry":
Newsweek
, June 9, 1997.

"I was the one who went to Green hill": Interview with SR, September 14,2004.

"As always, the difficulty is":
Newsweek
, June 9, 1997.

"The negotiations broke down":
Institutional Investor
, June 1998.

"Of course you can never": "Can Lazard Still Cut It?"
Fortune
, July 20,1998.

"Damon was in bed with Rattner": Interview with Wilson, January 18, 2005.

"It became clearer": Ibid.

"Is your shit tight?": Interviews with Lazard bankers. Actually, the full quotation attributed to Wilson was "Is your shit tight? Because if your shit isn't tight, I'm not doing the hurt dance."

"There was swirling, infighting": Interview with Wilson, January 18, 2005.

"I felt Lazard really": Ibid.

"There was zero interest": Ibid.

"The fact that Ken Wilson": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"I think he fundamentally decided": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"And so I got to be head": Interview with Jerry Rosenfeld, March 1, 2005.

"It was total frustration":
Bloomberg Markets
, February 2005.

"The beginning of a period":
NYT
, April 9, 1998.

"I will never do it": Ibid.

"I am starting to see":
WSJ
, February 2, 1998.

"His job right now is to lead": "Lazard in Search of Self,"
Institutional Investor
, June 1998.

"was hidden from the Firm": Mel Heineman memorandum, December 3,1997.

"None of it made any sense": Interview with SR, March 16, 2005.

"The stuff that was going on": Ibid.

"We got no tax losses": Ibid.

"You may ask why I wasn't": Cary Reich,
Financier: The Biography of Andre Meyer
(New York: Morrow, 1983), p. 343.

"David, do you understand": Interview with David Supino, June 21,2004.

"We should have put the key":
Institutional Investor
, October 1985.

"revalued the portfolio based": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

The account of Lazard's legal dispute with Art Solomon: Interviews with SR, WL, Damon Mezzacappa, and Steve Golub; and Devin Leonard, "Revenge of Solomon,"
New York Observer
, June 21,1999.

"We couldn't believe":
New York Observer
, June 21, 1999.

"cleaning up the whole real estate": Interview with Mezzacappa, August 2,2004.

"Michel took great umbrage": Ibid.

"It was really just awful": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

Information about the historical side deals: Lazard memorandum.

"Steve made all that stuff transparent":
TALK
, April 2001.

"The reality of the side deals": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"He didn't care that much about the money": Ibid.

"a self-promoting guy in a hurry":
TALK
, April 2001.

"There was some reality to it": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"It was very, very clear to me":
TALK
, April 2001.

"Our approach involves concentrating": "Can Lazard Still Cut It?" 453. "I believed, and in retrospect": Interview with SR, March 16, 2005.

"And that's how I felt about it": Ibid.

"Investment bankers getting up": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"She was sort of prancing": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"It was dear old Steve Rattner": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Don't let the history": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"This has been achieved":
Lazard Freres & Co.: The First 150 Years
(New York: Lazard Freres & Co., 1998).

"We were up on the sixty-third floor": Interview with SR, March 16,2005.

"So many of the senior guys": Interview with Roger Klein, June 3, 2005.

"Michel had previously been resisting": Ibid.

"As long as Michel": "Lazard in Search of Self."

"Not me": "Can Lazard Still Cut It?" 457. "I spent my whole life advising":
WSJ
, December 14, 1999.

"There was nothing holding people": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"particularly coupled with initiatives": SR memorandum, August 1998.

"You ended up with this mishmash": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"It was all these things": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"We had to be one firm": Ibid.

"Look, I have only two questions": Ibid.

"I said to myself, if I were starting": Ibid.

"I set it up": Interview with SR, March 16, 2005.

"The organization described": SR memorandum, November 1998.

"very talented banker": Interview with SR, September 14, 2005.

"Michel had read the proposal": Ibid.

"torpedoed it": Ibid.

"I think Michel was balancing two things": Ibid.

"That's why he had Bruno call": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Michel dictated the fax": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"We were excited": Interview with Mezzacappa, August 2, 2004.

"friendly rivals": Interview with SR, March 16, 2005.

"Rattner putsch": Interview with David Verey, May 31, 2005.

"At that point, he wanted": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"He didn't want me to leave": Interview with SR, March 16, 2005.

"I felt that it was important": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"Nearly two years ago": SR speech, March 2, 1999.

"My last shot to get something sensible done": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"Michel had a plan to merge": Ibid.

"It's like earthquakes in California": Interview with WL, November 4, 2005.

"It was obviously difficult": Ibid.

"first comprehensive federal government": SEC press release and settlement agreement with Lazard, April 22,1999.

"The whole municipal episode": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"There I got really, really hurt": Interview with MDW, April 12, 2005.

"This really got to me": Ibid.

"I could not have felt better": SR e-mail to WL, April 23, 1999.

"Forget it": SR e-mail to WL, May 1999.

"decided to step back": Lazard press release, June 6, 1999.

"David-Weill or the Highway":
Institutional Investor
, July 1999.

"We would have preferred": Lazard press release, June 6, 1999.

"hastily publicized":
Economist
, June 10, 1999.

"lost a chosen successor":
Business-Week
, June 21, 1999.

"It is a very curious thing": Ibid.

"There [were] a tremendous number of people": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"All these people trying to do battle": Interview with Luis Rinaldini, November 18, 2004.

"The first time I ran banking": Interview with SR, March 16, 2005.

"He didn't relate well with me": Interview with MDW, September 15, 2004.

"Michel was right in knowing":
Euromoney
, January 2001.

"In retrospect there are some things": Interview with SR, March 16, 2005.

Chapter 17. "He Lit Up a Humongous Cigar and Puffed It in Our Faces for Half an Hour"

"with a great deal of regret": SR, "Farewell Remarks," June 7, 1999.

"As I hope you all feel": Ibid.

"100 of his closest friends": SR letter, June 17, 1999.

"It was completely logical": Interview with SR, September 14, 2004.

"incredulous": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Lazard World is the continuation": WL speech to partners, June 1999.

"It's up to us now": Ibid.

"That was the moment": Interview with David Verey, May 31, 2005.

"All the time she was saying": Interview with MDW, September 15,2004.

"pretty good misery, frankly": Interview with Verey, May 31, 2005.

"Dealers are very quick": Interview with MDW; also, MDW provided an annotated tour of his art collection in his Fifth Avenue apartment, September 15,2004.

"When you see Michel looking": Interview with Guy Wildenstein, October 28, 2005.

"What you have to understand": Interview with MDW, September 15,2004.

"Once you start thinking about retiring":
Institutional Investor
, July 1999.

"It will be whoever is suitable": Ibid.

"Michel and I are old friends": Ibid.

"There is absolutely abject terror": Ibid.

"I don't think there is one partner": Ibid.

"Not to address this": Ibid.

"He's locked in his character and his legend": Robert Lenzer, "Assault on the House of Lazard,"
Forbes,
September 4,2000.

"It is true that Monsieur Bernheim":
Sunday Business,
November 26, 2000.

"Michel David-Weill and his cronies": Interview with Jon Wood, February 1, 2005.

"a very interesting character": Lenzer, "Assault on the House of Lazard."

"We have a mission": Ibid.

"I'm not impressed by": Ibid.

"break up the Lazard empire": Ibid.

"He was unhelpful and incredibly arrogant": Ibid.

"The empire is not being ruled": Ibid.

"He was not very happy": "Vincent Bollore, Banking Provocateur,"
Bloomberg Markets,
November 2003.

"Bollore bought shares": Ibid.

"Michel has pulled off a remarkable coup": AE. December 12, 2000.

"A genius is someone": "Vincent Bollore, Banking Provocateur."

"Let's say that no one had ever":
BusinessWeek,
April 23, 2001.

"It is not often":
Financial News,
December 11, 2000.

"Michel is only getting": Interview with Wood, February 1, 2005.

"Michel kind of wanted me to take a hit": Interview with Damon Mezzacappa, August 2, 2004.

"When Ira found out": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Damon was a fucking ganef": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"What happened when all this transparency": Interview with Mezzacappa, August 2, 2004.

"The more our clients turn": "The Last Emperor,"
Bloomberg Magazine,
January 2001.

"so sumptuous that a Matisse": Ibid.

$275,000: Public records, Nassau County, New York.

"The idea of a small, private firm":
Institutional Investor,
July 1999.

"With so many senior people leaving":
NYT,
December 1, 1999.

"by virtue of how he is": Ibid.

"Vernon Jordan epitomizes": Ibid.

"But I don't walk into Lazard": "Questions for Vernon Jordan,"
NYT,
July 16, 2000.

"For the first two or three days": WL memorandum, December 1999.

"This special treatment of Jordan":
Washington Post,
January 22, 2000.

"Did you come all the way": Ibid.

"We did the merger with no management": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Lazard is unabashedly different": WL memorandum to managing directors, February 16, 2000.

"a contract of adhesion": Interviews with Lazard partners.

Details of the merger of the three houses: Lazard LLC merger documents.

"It became clear that":
WSJ,
March 7, 2000.

"The one asset we have": Ibid.

"astonishing good humour and determination": AE, December 10, 2000.

"Lazard's is French again":
Euromoney,
January 2001.

"He's never straightforward": Ibid.

"was one of the most dishonest": Interview with Wood, February 1, 2005.

SR's departure from Lazard: Numerous press reports.

Messier joining Quadrangle Group:
Financial News,
September 1, 2002.

"threatened Armageddon":
Euromoney,
January 2001.

"Six months into it": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"We may have to change our means": Lenzer, "Assault on the House of Lazard."