Burroughs and Helyar tell the story of the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in gripping fashion, showing how greed and shortsightedness contributed to the biggest and worst-managed corporate takeover in history. The players: Salesman F. Ross Johnson of RJR vs. Henry Kravitz of KKR. Everything from a wild, rip-roaring potboiler novel is here: Secret deals, stock market manipulation, flouting of laws, surprise plot twists. All of it almost unbelievable, but all of it true.
The next time you wonder about how people could have been taken in by internet companies with insane stock prices who blew through venture capital as if it were funny money, read this book. It's well worth your time, effort, and energy.
KKR's 399 workers generated net income last year of $2.7 million per employee, compared with the $2.9 million average by Blackstone's 770 workers, according to SEC filings. Their profits per employee dwarf those of investment banks. New York-based Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the most profitable securities firm, earned $360,336 per employee in 2006.
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