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Big Deal: Mergers and Acquisitions in the Digital Age [Paperback]

Bruce Wasserstein (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Nothing in business is more shrouded in secrecy and mystery than "doing the deal." The dealmakers themselves are usually flamboyant, the sums of money involved are vast, and the number of people who are affected by the deal are many. So it's no wonder that the media loves to cover stories like the QVC/Viacom battle over Paramount or Worldcom's recent takeover bids--deals like these can dominate headlines for days. Big Deal is about this high stakes game of corporate mergers and acquisitions. Author Bruce Wasserstein, himself a participant in many of these deals through his firm Wasserstein, Perella & Co., writes a highly readable and fascinating account that covers the history, personalities, and mechanics of mergers and acquisitions.

Wasserstein sees five waves of mergers beginning in the mid-1800s: the first wave involved the building of the railroad empires; the second in the 1920s saw a period of merger mania which was fueled in part by a frothy stock market and rapid industrial growth; the third wave happened during the "Go-Go Years" of the 1960s, which witnessed the rise of the conglomerate; the fourth occurred with the hostile takeovers of the 1980s, driven by names such as Icahn, Boesky, and Milken; and finally Wasserstein sees a fifth wave happening today. He attributes the current explosion of mergers and acquisitions to the need for companies to reposition themselves in today's ever changing competitive environment.

Wasserstein peppers the book with thumbnail personality profiles of some of the big dealmakers including Barry Diller, Sumner Redstone, Carl Icahn, T. Boone Pickens, and Bernard Ebbers. He also considers the many techniques and strategies employed by the dealmakers--poison pills, proxy fights, and bear hugs. Trends such as globalization, deregulation, and profound technological change are causing mergers and acquisitions to happen more than ever, and Big Deal provides a good foundation for understanding why and how these deals happen. --Harry C. Edwards --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post

Unfortunately, while Wasserstein has written a serviceable history of American business and its propensity--going back to the 1920s--for bigness, he has not delivered the kind of account that is likely to interest the lay reader. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 960 pages
  • Publisher: Business Plus; 3rd edition (September 1, 2001)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0446675210
  • ISBN-13: 978-0446675215
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 1.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #354,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
    #79 in  Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Consolidation & Merger

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More About the Author

Bruce Wasserstein
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
The dawn of the new millennium has been accompanied by a frenetic quest for the business model of the future. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
busted sale, bear hug offer, bear hug letter, targeted stock, jewel lockup, comparable companies analysis, fixed exchange ratio, financial buyers, takeover entrepreneurs, cable assets, white squire, target company stock, tender offer rules, price collar, hostile bidder, junk bond offering, target company shareholders, friendly deal, takeover contest, breakup fee, antitakeover laws, hostile deals, hostile tender offer, hostile offer, consent solicitation
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Wall Street, Standard Oil, Morgan Stanley, Bell Atlantic, Time Warner, Dean Witter, Baby Bells, Supreme Court, United States, Wells Fargo, Forstmann Little, Berkshire Hathaway, Philip Morris, Telecom Italia, Barry Diller, American Express, Boone Pickens, Global Crossing, Los Angeles, Texas Eastern, First Interstate, Salomon Brothers, Sumner Redstone, Carl Icahn
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This book cites 28 books:
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The Art of M&A by Alexandra Reed Lajoux
 

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Big Deal: Mergers and Acquisitions in the Digital Age
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Customer Reviews

26 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (26 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A very good read, August 28, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: Big Deal: The Battle for Control of America's Leading Corporations (Hardcover)
I work as a business intermediary assisting clients in both selling and buying their business. I always recommend that anyone interested in the M&A field read this book. My only complaint is that there was not enough on some of the more interesting personalities in the business.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Big picture of deals throughout history, December 8, 2001
By J. Turner (Houston, Texas United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Big Deal: The Battle for Control of America's Leading Corporations (Hardcover)
Arguably, few others could have been positioned to write a behind the scenes book detailing the world of corporate raiders, and financial gunslingers. He had the perfect opportunity to write a compelling book about flamboyant dealmakers and their deals. Unfortunately, in 800+ pages, Wasserstein has done a remarkable job of revealing little or nothing about his personal experiences.

This book covers the basics of M&A, various deals throughout history, and interjects profiles of some of the notable dealmakers like Diller, Redstone, Icahn, Pickens, and more.

The author also tackles the issue of how these mergers and acquisitions affect the little guy, trying to explain away anti-merger rhetoric. Unfortunately, most of his arguments can be summarized as, "it isn't that simple." Not very compelling.

This gargantuan book is informative, but most of it is dry and stilted. If you are looking for hidden information or colorful anecdotes about the stunning amount of money changing hands, this book will not give you what you want.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended!, March 20, 2002
This review is from: Big Deal: Mergers and Acquisitions in the Digital Age (Paperback)
M&A tycoon Bruce Wasserstein has not just studied the high-stakes world of corporate mergers & acquisitions, he's lived it. As head of M&A at First Boston and then as leader of his own firm, Wasserstein has played a role in many pivotal corporate marriages. In these pages, Wasserstein comprehensively examines the hows and whys of history's largest deals. While skirting the fundamental question of whether mergers & acquisitions enhance or depress shareholder value over the long term, Wasserstein conveys an overwhelming amount of information about the dynamics and tactics that define M&A. The book is enormous and encyclopedic, so it might serve better as a reference text than a straight-through read. We from getAbstract strongly recommend this book for both its compelling historic accounts of Wall Street's most important deals and deal makers and its detailed breakdown of how the game actually works.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Big Deal is a Bit Dated
PROS:
* An outstanding overview of 19-20th century business deals.
* An excellent summary of the various issues and ways of doing deals, both from the buyer and... Read more
Published 22 months ago by Francis Tapon

3.0 out of 5 stars okay book
I'm a banker. This book is about banking deals, no stories, no filler, just cases. Good read of you want to learn about older mega deals. Read more
Published on February 5, 2007 by S. G. Tam

5.0 out of 5 stars The Veritable Bible for Bankers
You will see this book and wonder how'll you finish an 800 pager like it in a reasonable ammount of time. Read more
Published on December 16, 2005 by DJ

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow! An incredible amount of great info in a single volume!
What an incredible resource! I bought this book because it was on the suggested reading list for a course on Corporate Control I took in the MBA program at the University of... Read more
Published on November 28, 2002 by Craig Matteson

5.0 out of 5 stars Extremely dry book
This book makes the Mojave look positively flush with water. Mr. Wasserstein addresses a fascinating topic--mergers and acquistions--with all the passion of a mortician. Read more
Published on July 18, 2002 by D. Friedman

3.0 out of 5 stars Big picture of "Big Deals"
This book has three chapters: first two are almost entirely dedicated to historical facts of M&A and various deal players. Read more
Published on October 16, 2001

2.0 out of 5 stars Classroom Lecture
In reading Big Deal by Bruce Wasserstein, I was hoping to get true inside information from someone who professes to be a big player in the merger and acquisitions market. Read more
Published on January 21, 2000

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT BOOK. INSIGHTFUL
GIVES A GOOD REVIEW OF THE HIG POWER M&A WORLD. PART 3 IS EXTREMELY USEFUL WITH LOT OF EXPLANATION OF LEGAL MANDARINS IN THE TAKEOVER WORLD. GOOD READ.
Published on September 29, 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars Penetrating and detailed examination of mega-mergers.
Penetrating view of very large mergers, with insights about strategy and tactics, anecdotes, and profiles of key players. Read more
Published on March 20, 1999

4.0 out of 5 stars Effective summary of high profile M&A activity and history
The author has an awesome task in summarizing dynamics and history of M&A Activity. Books can be (and have) written on indiudual deals. Read more
Published on February 25, 1999

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