Big Deal Book

In the high-stakes world of mergers and acquisitions, Bruce Wasserstein is a legend. With more than one thousand deals under his belt, including many of the largest, Wasserstein is uniquely positioned to tell the story of the buyouts, mergers, and takeovers that have created the extraordinary changes in the corporate landscape over the past three decades. In BIG DEAL, Bruce Wasserstein captures the evolution of modern deal-making-from the go-go conglomerate days of the 1960s and 1970s...to the hostile takeover environment of the 1980s...to the billion-dollar strategic corporate deals of the 1990s. He unveils the details of major transactions and portrays key individuals. And he offers a front-row seat to the most famous takeover brawls of our time, providing a rare opportunity to watch Viacom, ITT, Time Warner, AT&T, IBM, and heavy hitters Henry Kravis, Ron Perelman, Barry Diller, and others in action. Wasserstein also focuses his perceptive vision on the recent wave of corporate mergers and acquisitions. He explains why entire industries-media and telecommunications, financial services, healthcare-are roiling with change, and how fundamental market developments have triggered the latest merger boom. Highly readable, BIG DEAL is a book for anyone interested in the drama and technique of deals. Participant, observer, and analyst, Bruce Wasserstein has written the definitive book on America's toughest industry: the business of the BIG DEAL.Read More