The last tycoons: the secret history of Lazard Frères & Co (138 page)

"There is no sharing":
BusinessWeek,
November 16, 2001.

reaction within Lazard: Various press reports.

"inherited a ship with a mutinous crew":
NYT,
January 4, 2002.

"off on the same duck shoot":
Economist,
December 5, 2002.

"Clearly Michel knew what he had to do": Interview with a Lazard partner.

Chapter 19. Bid-'Em-Up Bruce

"Bruce is very creative":
People,
June 25, 1990.

"His PR machine was working": Interview with Lynne Killin, March 2, 2006.

"female pioneer in corporate America":
New York,
November 18, 2002.

"little like Penn and Teller": Phoebe Hoban, "The Family Wasserstein,"
New York,
January 4, 1993.

"Morris was an extremely gentle": Interview with a Wasserstein family friend.

"They were in the ribbon business": Interview with Ivan Cohen, January 23,2006.

"We should all be as happy": Ibid.

Information about Abner Wasserstein: ARC of Monroe County Web site and other press reports.

"Bruce was a genius":
New York,
November 18, 2002; and Vicky Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans,"
Vanity Fair,
April 2005.

"One day, this is going to be mine": "Dressing Up Lazard,"
Bloomberg Magazine,
February 2003.

"Sweetie, he's a play unto himself!": Pamela Wasserstein at Wendy Wasserstein's memorial service, March 13, 2006.

"It had a major effect on him": Paul Cowan, "The Merger Maestro,"
Esquire,
May 1984.

"He was always the sort of kid": Ibid.

"When I was a kid": L. J. Davis, "Wall Street's Wonder Boys,"
NYT Magazine,
January 28, 1990.

The headlines and "The funny thing about the whole situation": Bruce Wasserstein, "Never Trust a Naked Editor," Publick Occurrences,
Michigan Daily,
January 19, 1967.

"He had a tremendous intellect": Interview with Harvey Wasserman, December 22, 2005.

"First you pick a department": Bruce Wasserstein, "Raw Power Beats System Every Time,"
Michigan Daily,
April 8,1966.

"Let's put it this way": Interview with Killin, March 2, 2006.

"Commuting by bicycle between the two schools":
Harvard Business School Bulletin,
October 1996.

a collection of thirteen essays: Bruce Wasserstein and Mark J. Green, eds.,
With Justice for Some
(Boston: Beacon Press, 1970).

"He damned well better have": Interview with Killin, March 2, 2006.

"He always had a lot of fish to fry": Interview with Ralph Nader, June 27, 2005.

"I remember him saying": Interview with Killin, March 2, 2006.

collaborated on another book: Mark J. Green with Beverly C. Moore Jr. and Bruce Wasserstein,
The Closed Enterprise System
(New York: Grossman, 1972).

his thirty-four-page: Bruce Wasserstein, "British Merger Policy from an American Perspective,"
Yale Law Journal
82, no. 4 (1973).

"almighty lucre": Interview with Nader, June 27, 2005.

Bruce keeps a framed copy: Interview with a friend of BW.

"First of all": Interview with Killin, March 2, 2006.

"So she was making fun of my rocks": Ibid.

"We were doing taxes": Ibid.

"I remember reading about all the fees":
Institutional Investor,
June 1987.

"I don't think I was at the meeting": Ibid.

"When the M&A effort at First Boston": Wasserstein,
Big Deal.
549. "The structure of the deal was so complex": Davis, "Wall Street's Wonder Boys."

written the blueprint: Bruce Wasserstein,
Corporate Finance Law: A Guide for the Executive
(New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978).

"The deal business is unfortunately replete": Ibid., p. 4.

"He has great ambition and great confidence": Interview with a friend of BW.

The Bruce brand got a boost: Robert Metz,
NYT,
May 2, 1980.

"heavy-set and blond":
NYT,
April 21, 1981.

"Wasserstein is best at figuring out": Tim Metz,
WSJ,
April 21, 1982.

"Simon and Garfunkel": L. J. Davis, "Slightly Tarnished,"
New York Times Magazine
, January 28, 1990.

"I spotted this tall": Interview with Clarence Fanto, February 4, 2006.

"Overweight and chronically rumpled": Cowan, "Merger Maestro."

"Of course that is a good thing": Ibid.

"What I'd like to think of as the hallmark":
Institutional Investor,
June 1987.

"transform Wall Street":
WSJ,
November 6, 1986.

"There was a swirl of controversy":
Institutional Investor,
June 1987.

"These collapses will be long": Carol Loomis, "The Biggest Looniest Deal Ever,"
Fortune,
June 18, 1990.

"Blood is everywhere":
Forbes
, February 5, 1990.

"He didn't see that": Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans."

"Bruce had incredible leverage":
Fortune,
March 14, 1988.

"I thought Wasserstein was out of line": Ibid.

"If you shoot him": Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans."

"It was smoke":
Fortune,
March 14,1988.

"lowered both his eyes": Michael Lewis,
Liar's Poker
(New York: W. W. Norton, 1989), p. 226n.

"The memo came in": Interview with Mike Biondi, December 2, 2005.

"I was really pissed": Ibid.

"Wasserstein was embarrassed":
Fortune,
March 14, 1988.

"Chuck's obviously reading from a script": Interview with Biondi, December 2, 2005.

"They can make a few phone calls":
Los Angeles Times,
February 3, 1988.

"I'm in Boston": Interview with Dan Okrent, January 7, 2006.

"I didn't give a shit": Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans."

"For 18 months we were golden": Ibid.

"fraud upon the board":
Newsweek,
July 10, 1989; and
Forbes,
August 7,1989.

"Macmillan shareholders received a spectacular price":
Newsweek,
July 10,1989.

"What advantage would Wasserstein": "Bid-'Em-Up Bruce,"
Forbes,
August 7, 1989.

"right up there with the best":
Newsweek,
July 10, 1989.

"It was the first time I'd ever really": Interview with Fred Seegal, April 18,2005.

"All at one time": "Bid-'Em-Up Bruce."

"carefully cultivated image": Ibid.

"Mr. Wasserstein has found himself":
WSJ,
December 11, 1989.

"was the principal architect": Ibid.

"I don't think the company is worth":
WSJ,
July 11, 1990.

"The minute we came back from lunch" and the story of Edwin Bohl: Donald Barlett and James Steele,
America: What Went Wrong?
(New York: Andrews and McMeel, 1992), p. 29.

"I'd like to thank all of you":
WSJ,
January 11, 1990.

"The idea was to get the deal done":
WSJ,
February 11, 1991.

"Wasserstein knowingly failed to stop":
Forbes,
February 5, 1990.

"It was like playing three-dimensional chess":
NYT,
April 2, 1988.

"The financing was not done on a timely basis":
BusinessWeek,
October 2,1989.

"Campeau is said to have raged": Davis, "Wall Street's Wonder Boys."

"People invent a simple, convenient fiction": Ibid.

"What he was always best at": Joe Nocera, "Barbarian's End,"
GQ,
May 1991.

fifty-five-hundred-word excerpt: Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, "Inside History's Biggest Takeover,"
WSJ,
January 4, 1990.

"Consequently, they do know": Bruce Wasserstein, letter to the editor,
WSJ
, January 11, 1990.

"show of fighting back": Interview with Bryan Burrough.

"Kravis had to know the damage": Nocera, "Barbarian's End."

"Requests for interviews get shunted": Christopher Byron,
New York,
February 5, 1990.

"in a slump":
M, Inc.,
September 1990.

"second opinion on price and structure":
WSJ,
November 27, 1990.

"didn't want to disturb Ovitz": Ibid.

"All in all, the incident made": Nocera, "Barbarian's End."

"Nietzsche's whole posit": Interview with a friend of BW.

"He was very decisive": Interview with a friend of BW.

"is just another acquisition for Bruce": Interview with a friend of BW.

"He did this against the advice": Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans."

"History has shown": Interview with a friend of BW.

"Bruce on the investment side": Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans."

"All of a sudden, I read": Davis, "Wall Street's Wonder Boys."

"If you think I'm bitter": Interview with a former partner of BW.

"brutal": Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans."

"Claude is very charming, and very funny": Ibid.

Chapter 20. Civil War

"I don't care about it":
Sunday Telegraph,
November 18, 2001.

"He's so pompous": Interview with Jon Wood, February 1, 2005.

"The politics are over at Lazard": Numerous press reports, including
WSJ,
November 13, 2002.

"Anyone who says that":
Sunday Telegraph,
November 18, 2001.

"What's that French song?": Ibid.

"He introduces himself": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"It was deflating": Interview with Ken Jacobs, October 31, 2005.

"It was a big deal": Ibid.

"That was the collapse": Ibid.

After Loomis calmed Tashjian down: Interview with WL, MDW, and other Lazard partners.

"The problem with Lazard": Landon Thomas Jr., "Will Lazard Make It?"
New York Observer,
December 10, 2001.

"publicly humiliated": AE, undated notes around December 2001.

"is a disaster": Ibid.

"Okay, now I'm the boss": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"He had no choice": Interview with a Lazard partner.

complained about the "hold" music: Interview with a Lazard partner.

new management team: Lazard press release, January 3, 2002.

"according to Lazard calculations":
NYT,
January 4, 2002.

"new fandangos":
WSJ,
January 3,2002.

"BW will take over from MDW": Summary of "Lazard LLC Third Amended and Restated Operating Agreement."

"Heads of House": Ibid.

"you will lose all the A-2 goodwill": Scott Hoffman to recipients of the third amended agreements, January 10, 2002.

"In thinking about the end game": Memo circulating among Lazard partners.

six bankers from DKW: Numerous press reports, including
WSJ,
January 10,2002.

"With super rich contracts": Lazard chat room on Vault.com, February 17,2002.

Details of Weinstock, Herenstein, and Santana's departure:
Lazard Debt Recovery GP et al., plaintiffs, vs. Michael A. Weinstock and Andrew J. Herenstein, defendants
(CA no. 19503), as filed and adjudicated in the Court of Chancery in the state of Delaware, and
Weinstock and Herenstein, plaintiffs, vs. Lazard Debt Recovery GP et al., defendants
(CA No. 20048), also in the Court of Chancery.

"I've never sued anybody": Interview with MDW, December 1, 2004.

"And then within minutes": Ibid.

"People are cheap at the moment":
Financial Times
, December 6, 2002.

"No more politics":
WSJ,
November 13, 2002, and numerous press reports.

"I'm gone": Interviews with Lazard partners.

"Historically, people had talked about the business": "Dressing Up Lazard,"
Bloomberg Magazine,
February 2003.

"He's the only guy": Interview with Al Garner.

"After this, no corporate financier":
Financial News,
July 21, 2002.

"Recent layoffs of MDs were necessary": Lazard chat room on Vault.com, July 27, 2002.

"Morale is pretty low": Ibid., August 3, 2002.

"some of the plushest used by any investment bank":
Daily Telegraph,
May 3, 2004.

malfunctioning telephone system:
Financial News,
July 6, 2003.

"Instead of a dimly lit waiting room": "Dressing Up Lazard."

"Michel was torn about that": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Bruce was on a spending spree": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Liquidity doesn't last forever": Interview with a Lazard partner.

Details of Intesa's 2002 investment in Lazard and its unwinding in 2006: Numerous press reports, including
WSJ,
September 10, 2002, and Lazard public filings.

"We have a spiritual ethos":
Financial Times,
December 6, 2002.

"When you look across Wall Street": Ibid.

"Some people see talented people as difficult":
WSJ,
November 13, 2002.

"reinvested extensively in our future": Mike Castellano memorandum, January 30, 2003.

"good year" in 2002 "in a difficult environment": Ibid.

"memorandum capital deferred compensation": Ibid.

"Bullshit capital": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Michel wasn't going to watch": Interview with a Lazard partner.

Communist revolution in the right ventricle: Interview with David Verey, November 10, 2005.

Details of Lazard's controversial hiring of the Merrill Lynch bankers and the lawsuit that followed: Supreme Court, State of New York, New York County, Merrill Lynch, petitioner, and Lazard Freres & Co. et al., respondents (index no. 600867/03), February-April 2003. Also Lazard's countersuit (index no. 601159/03). Also NASD arbitration no. 03-01-01484.

"So what? There are lawsuits all the time": Interview with a Lazard partner.