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 Lazard Freres & Co. Who would have thought it would be revealed! August 13, 2008
The book reads like a novel with fascinating histories of one of the most secretive and successful of Wall Street's investment firms. The characters are well known to everyone on Wall Street starting with Felix Rohatyn, Andre Meyer, Michel David-Weills, Steve Rattner and then none other than Bruce Wasserstein. What has not been well known about the internal working relationships of the partners is revealed in wonderful detail for the first time by an insider who captures personalities dealing with greed and power as well as personal triumphs and shortcomings. As one who has been involved with matters of client investments and Wall Street for nearly 50 years, I found the book immensely interesting and revealing in ways truly unexpected.
 A big long book displaying the limitless greed and power seeking at Lazard July 31, 2008
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
If you are interested in the story of Lazard Freres & Co. from its founding to its current incarnation as a public firm run by Bruce Wasserstein, this is your book. William D. Cohan worked at Lazard for six years and got to know the stories and the key people. He has done his research and provides insights about the leaders and top rainmakers of the company. This is a book more about people than deals. The author uses the deals to illustrate aspects of the person being discussed. Even when deals are being discussed, the actual business details are kept to a minimum. This is probably wise since only finance people would be able to follow a truly technical discussion of the logic and means of the M&A activity Lazard specializes in.
This book gets quite personal about the lives of the men this book focuses on and the big names do not come across very well. Beyond their personal peccadilloes with women other than their wives, they are also vain, petty, vicious, greedy beyond measure, and disloyal to anyone and anything but a fee. Some of the betrayals and vendettas described in this book are shocking. The lesson to take away from these stories is that you have to realize the kind of folks you are dealing with when you are dealing with this level of investment banker and never assume anything, never do anything on trust, and understand that they are going to do precisely what is in their self-interest even if it means betraying you. Now, I am not saying every investment banker is like this, but so many of them are that you have to protect yourself by acting as if all of them are.
The business of investment banking as practiced by Lazard, giving of advice rather than supplying capital, also comes across poorly. It seems to be full of self-dealing, puffery, outright deception, insider trading, betrayal, compromised ethics, and many other sins that are justified by the millions upon tens of millions of dollars they make. Their treatment of their employees, especially female employees, is shockingly atavistic and justified because the underlings getting misused will learn to make millions by being around these "great men". The egos are so outsized that no amount of self-justification seems to be beyond them.
Lazard, until Wasserstein, was really three companies. They were in New York, Paris, and London with a number of branch offices. However, it had been run by Europeans for most of the 20th Century and their outlook and way of doing things was quite intricate, secretive, and without a hint of a need to do something because it was right (at least as how it is described in this book). Oh, there is a lot of talk and public posturing about being pure and moral, but behind Oz's curtain it was very different as the lawsuits, investigations, fines, and other facts demonstrate. Again, it was and remains all about the money. As the old saying goes, "It isn't really about the money; it's about the amount of money."
Look, I don't know these men. I have never met any of them. I don't know what they are really like. Maybe the author has painted them very different than they really are. However, there seems to be so much evidence, so many witnesses, so much now out in the open, that what is provided here in this book seems pretty convincing. This is a long book, but if you are interested in getting into this rats nest, Cohan has provided a tour of the nest and a handbook about the lives of the king rats.
One little side note. I have often warned people not to confuse rich businessmen with being capitalists, conservatives, free market types, or even Republicans. Well, these bankers call themselves capitalists and that makes some sense because of the way they pursue profit (even without risking capital). However, readers of this book will note that these bankers were ALL power players in the Democratic Party. Regulation and favorable laws suit them and their industry well. They use government power to protect themselves from competitors and to gain special treatment for themselves and their clients. So, do NOT confuse these people with being free market conservatives. They are much closer to a privately managed socialism with themselves as the string pullers and profiteers. However, it also suits them to let people vent their anger about greedy bankers against the political party they oppose.
I do wonder why the book had NO pictures of the key players, places, or things discussed in the book. Maybe the author and publisher decided we could all find what interested us on the Internet. However, I would have preferred some photos in the book.
Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI
interesting, thorough but a little insider-ish July 9, 2008
If you've ever wondered what goes behind closed doors in boardrooms and corner offices when CEOs want to build their companies into empires, The Last Tycoons is a good book to consult. Cohan puts readers inside the confidential meetings that helped re-shape corporate America and gave birth to the modern conglomerate. However, the books size and sheer amount of detail can seem a little overwhelming at times.
There are pages upon pages of testimony transcribed when it comes to the ITT-Hartford deal that plays a major part in the book and incredibly nuanced blow by blow, minute by minute descriptions of how Lazard's partners became partners, what they did, who they talked to, what they said and what letters they wrote to whom. While Cohan's research and knowledge of the subject is certainly highly impressive and obvious within the first 100 of the 668 pages of banking and M&A history, the minutia and seemingly endless reproduction of memos and letters written as far back as the 19th century, give the book a rather gossipy undertone. If you're a new employee of Lazard or thinking of joining the company, this is the kind of history you might find incredibly advantageous to come in and hit the ground running in your first few months on the job. For the rest of us, non-bankers, this is information we wouldn't be upset to find briefly summarized.
Ultimately, The Last Tycoons accomplishes what it sets out to do. It provides an excellent history of Lazard Freres from its founding as a store in New Orleans to its public listing and captures and describes the larger than life people at the top and how they changed the company over its long history. If Mr. Cohan were to briefly summarize the 200+ pages of ubiquitous reproductions of memos, letters, testimonies and highly detailed minutia, the book would be even more enjoyable.
Good, but not quite a true "history" May 8, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A very thorough, though at times sensationalist and gossipy, tale of Wall Street's most intriguing investment house. However, I was sad to see the early history of the firm get short shrift in favor of an intricate string of anecdotes about the personal lives of various senior bankers. In that respect, historians will be largely disappointed but those who enjoy war stories of the rough and tumble 80's and 90's M&A banking environment ala "Barbarians" should enjoy it. Still, it appears that at times that Cohan is almost too eager to dramatize people and events to weave together a compelling story, and in doing so he migrates to a brand of yellow journalism that can be off-putting at times. Nevertheless, the book is generally well-written and captures both the glory and folly of powerful men in a unique and conspicuous way. To call it a comprehensive history, though, would be misleading as it really weights heavy toward the firm of 20 years ago and appears greatly colored by his own personal experience, for better or worse.
 Well researched and written; but dodges the ultimate question May 5, 2008
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Cohan has done an extraodinary amount of research, and this enables him to paint a vivid picture of the leading personalities at Lazard as well as to capture the firm's quirky culture. But, with the exception of its blistering account of the current Lazard leader, Wasserstein, the reader doesn't get a good sense of exactly what these investment bankers do during their day jobs. What is the nature of their advice, do they earn their keep, and with the benefit of history do they give the right advice? Other than Wasserstein, whom Cohan criticizes as dead wrong and completely mercenary throughout his career, we don't get a good sense of how these bankers do their work.
Absent that insight, and this may be difficult insight to deliver given the nature of the advice and surrounding circumstances, the book tends to degenerate into gossip. Anyone who has worked in a professional firm can, of course, relate to Lazard's dysfunctional culture and can appreciate the value of rainmaking over hard work. So this is quite interesting and perhaps useful gossip. But the real question presented by Lazard is just what do these bankers do and are they errant fiduciaries who take advantage of their influence over a deal to drive it at all costs so as to ensure ridiculously high fees?
With respect to Wasserstein, Cohan's contempt shines through. He does seem to represent everything that is wrong with Wall Street, though in fairness to him, his IPO of Lazard has worked out far better than I would have thought.
The author seems more favorably disposed to Rohatyn, Ratner, and Meyer, though there is not enough data about the specific deals they worked on to draw a conclusion.
This is an interesting book that is very well written and that gives some real insight into the workings of a famous Wall Street firm. But it ultimately does not grapple with the larger issues presented by the business or offer any suggestions for change.
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