Tombstones: A Lawyer's Tales from the Takeover Decades
A dispatch form the trenches in the corporate merger wars, this candid financial memoir starts out as an autobiographical account of a corporate lawyer's climb to the top. Takeover tactician Lederman, who devised his recapitalization technique while a partner at Wachtell Lipton, soon shifts into high gear, describing various hostile takeover attempts and leveraged buyouts. The players include Multimedia, Macmillan, Newmont, Goldman Sachs, Drexel Burnham and Wall Street figures such as raiders Thomas Mellon Evans, Henry Kravis and Robert Maxwell. The title refers to the black-bordered newspaper announcements of mergers, but also suggests that heads will roll. Lederman, a cool operator, combines extensive detail on the intricacies of dealmaking, including war games and mock battles, with an appraisal of the psychological impact of merger mania on lives and careers. He glamorizes the role of the corporate lawyer as midwife and catalyst clearing the way for change that transforms society.Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.