Consolidation & Merger in The Books Store

A book that stormed both the bestseller list and the public imagination, a book that created a genre of its own, and a book that gets at the heart of Wall Street and the '80s culture it helped define, Barbarians at the Gate has emerged twenty years after the tumultuous deal it so brilliantly recounts as a modern classic—a masterpiece of investigatory journalism and a rollicking book of corporate derring-do and financial swordsmanship.

The fight to control RJR Nabisco during October and November of 1988 was more than just the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Marked by brazen displays of ego not seen in American business for decades, it became the high point of a new gilded age and its repercussions are still being felt. The tale remains the ultimate story of greed and glory—a story and a cast of characters that determined the course of global business and redefined how deals would be done and fortunes made in the decades to come.

Barbarians at the Gate is the gripping account of these two frenzied months, of deal makers and publicity flaks, of an old-line industrial powerhouse (home of such familiar products a Oreos and Camels) that became the victim of the ruthless and rapacious style of finance in the 1980s. As reporters for The Wall Street Journal, Burrough and Helyar had extensive access to all the characters in this drama. They take the reader behind the scenes at strategy meetings and society dinners, into boardrooms and bedrooms, providing an unprecedentedly detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era.

At the center of the huge power struggle is RJR Nabisco's president, the high-living Ross Johnson. It's his secret plan to buy out the company that sets the frenzy in motion, attracting the country's leading takeover players: Henry Kravis, the legendary leveraged-buyout king whose entry into the fray sets off an acquisitive commotion; Peter Cohen, CEO of Shearson Lehman Hutton and Johnson's partner, who needs a victory to propel his company to an unchallenged leadership in the lucrative mergers and acquisitions field; the fiercely independent Ted Forstmann, motivated as much by honor as by his rage at the corruption he sees taking over the business he cherishes; Jim Maher and his ragtag team, struggling to regain credibility for the decimated ranks at First Boston; and an army of desperate bankers, lawyers, and accountants, all drawn inexorably to the greatest prize of their careers—and one of the greatest prizes in the history of American business.

Written with the bravado of a novel and researched with the diligence of a sweeping cultural history, Barbarians at the Gate is present at the front line of every battle of the campaign. Here is the unforgettable story of that takeover in all its brutality. In a new afterword specially commissioned for the story's 20th anniversary, Burrough and Helyar return to visit the heroes and villains of this epic story, tracing the fallout of the deal, charting the subsequent success and failure of those involved, and addressing the incredible impact this story—and the book itself—made on the world.

Why do so many M&A transactions fail? And what drives the success of those deals that are consummated? Robert Bruner explains that M&A can be understood as a response by managers to forces of turbulence in their environment. Despite the material failure rates of mergers and acquisitions, those pulling the trigger on key strategic decisions can make them work if they spend great care and rigor in the development of their M&A deals. By addressing the key factors of M&A success and failure, Applied Mergers and Acquisitions can help readers do this. Written by one of the foremost thinkers and educators in the field, this invaluable resource teaches readers the art and science of M&A valuation, deal negotiation, and bargaining, and provides a framework for considering tradeoffs in an effort to optimize the value of any M&A deal. Applied Mergers and Acquisitions is part of a complete suite of resources on M&A that includes a workbook and a CD-ROM with additional spreadsheets.

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Managing Change and Transition

Authoritative and completely up-to-date, the Fourth Edition of The Art of M&A is an unsurpassed, one-stop guide to every facet of mergers and acquisitions that enables you to make winning deals with complete confidence.

This definitive resource retains its popular Q&A format, offering quick access to all the changes that have occurred in the field since the merger wave of the 1990s. The book explores every key aspect of winning M&A transactions, and presents advice on avoiding common M&A pitfalls.

The Fourth Edition of The Art of M&A features vital information on:

• Getting Started in Mergers and Acquisitions --learning the basic M&A process, requirements, negotiating skills, and objectives
• Planning and Finding --deciding what to buy and then locating it
• Valuation and Pricing -- using multiple valuation methods to discover the true value of an acquired company or unit
• The Art of Financing and Refinancing -- mastering funding sources and issues
• Structuring M/A/B Transactions -- managing general, tax, and accounting considerations
• The Due Diligence Inquiry -- looking into the past, present, and future risks of the business to be purchased
• Negotiating the Acquisition Agreement and the Letter of Intent-- understanding two vital documents in the M&A process
• Closing -- synchronizing the many individual items to produce a harmonious transaction
• Postmerger Integration and Divestitures -- following through after the M&A deal to capture the economic value of synergies
• Special Issues for M&A in Public Companies_examining the unique legal and business considerations of public entities
• Workouts, Bankruptcies, and Liquidations -- handling specific financial problems that arise in M&A transactions with entities in the zone of insolvency
• Structuring Transactions with International Aspects -- developing the necessary skills and knowledge to do M&A deals across national borders

Filled with detailed examples and case studies, this updated classic also includes discussion of purchase accounting, Section 404, new legal cases with M&A implications, and more.

Reverse Mergers are far more versatile than IPOs. A great number of companies in a wide variety of situtations can use the technique successfully. Reverse mergers are particularly advantageous to smaller companies, many of which are cut out of the IPO market because they do not reach the restrictive criteria set by investment banks.