When Money Is King: How Revlon's Ron Perelman Mastered the World of Finance to Create One of America's Greatest Business Empires, and Found Glamour, Beauty, and the High Life in the Bargain [Hardcover]

Richard Hack (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1996

An expose+a7 of the private life and career of the CEO of Revlon traces his ruthless takeovers of dozens of companies, his amassing of a staggering personal fortune, his extravagant weddings and contentious divorces, and his forays into politics.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 286 pages
• Publisher: Newstar Pr (October 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787110337
• ISBN-13: 978-0787110338
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,112 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Creating Billions in Just 15 Years !!!, January 23, 2006

By 

Kevin Kingston (ny) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Money Is King: How Revlon's Ron Perelman Mastered the World of Finance to Create One of America's Greatest Business Empires, and Found Glamour, Beauty, and the High Life in the Bargain (Hardcover)

When Money Is King: How Revlon's Ron Perelman Mastered the World of Finance to Create One of America's Greatest Business Empires, and Found Glamour, Beauty, and the High Life in the Bargain, by Richard Hack


This is a great book to gain an understanding of how a one man force can create a multibillion-dollar empire in just 15 years through buying, selling and restructuring companies at a frenzied pace. This book is similar to most of the books I have reviewed both on Amazon and on my blog (at - bloglines.com/blog/KevinKingston ) in that an empire builder (Ron Perelman in this case) has the common characteristics of a super achiever, he is: drive, has tremendous courage and confidence and he has the all important understanding of the importance of cash flow.

The book starts out by explaining how Ron's relationship with his father was all about business, balance sheets and cash flow while growing up. He would sit in on board meetings with his father starting at age 11 and study financial statements after school instead of playing ball.

In 1961 as his freshman year in college came to an end he pursued a buy out of a Pennsylvania family owned Brewery for $800,000. Three years later his father and he sold it for a profit of $1,000,000. This deal gave him the adrenaline rush on which entrepreneurs thrive. The victory was sweet-and-addicting. Ron was hooked! He then married into a $100 million dollar fortune and it's deal mania from then on.

The key to Ron's success is the use of leverage, the understanding of cash flow and his ability to see and create value where others don't. It is no small task to take in money (Milken money) at a cost, in the area of 14.5% through the issuance of junk bonds and put it to work buying business that can not only pay the heavy debt load but generate handsome profits as well. This is really the key to most great fortunes, to understand how to borrow money and put it to work so it creates cash flow and builds equity over time.

The details of the corporate takeover battle for Revlon is a must read for those interested in finance. A deposition of Ron on pages 193-204 regarding a law suit by a former executive is totally comical. When asked a few questions his answer was. "I'm not going to tell you". This set the tone for the deposition and also gives you a sense of Ron's personality. Also interesting is Ron's love of long private walks and his yearning to be in bed by 10pm every night.

There is a lot to learn from this book to be sure.

By Kevin Kingston, author of, "A 20,000% Gain in Real Estate"