The World's Best Book Summaries
Why was Ross Johnson resistant to a leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco? Why did he eventually cave in? In the 1980s, many LBO consultants were pursuing the idea of buying out RJR Nabisco, but CEO Ross Johnson was hesitant. Eventually, he agreed to try an LBO, which would later become the biggest in history. Learn more about RJR Nabisco’s LBO below.
When was the Renaissance hedge fund launched? How did Jim Simons attract mathematicians and investors to the fund? After careers in codebreaking and academia, Jim Simons turned to a life of finance in 1978. He launched Monometrics in the same year, which was later renamed Renaissance. Learn more about Simons’s journey to the successful Renaissance hedge fund.
Do people usually bid on companies in LBOs? How many financial companies bid on RJR Nabisco? According to Barbarians at the Gate by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, competitive bidding is unusual in LBOs. But because Ross Johnson pitched the idea of an LBO to his board before preparation, it become a bidding contest between different competitors. Continue reading to learn more about the bidding contest for RJR Nabisco.
How hard was it being a bond trader in the 1980s? How did Salomon Brothers take over Wall Street? Salomon Brothers investment bank was founded in 1910 by Arthur, Herbert, and Percy Salomon. It wasn’t until the 1980s that the firm found its niche within the growing bond market. Keep reading to learn how the Salomon Brothers controlled the bond market, according to Liar’s Poker by Michael Lewis.
How did Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. come to be the highest bidder in the RJR Nabisco LBO? How many competitors did KKR have to beat? Although CEO Ross Johnson didn’t think many financial companies were interested in buying RJR Nabisco, many stepped up. According to Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s book Barbarians at the Gate, KKR was the highest bidder in the contest for RJR Nabisco. Keep reading to learn about all the companies who bid for RJR Nabisco, including KKR.
What was the largest LBO in history? What did Ross Johnson do after selling RJR Nabisco? In 1986, the financial company Kravis bought RJR Nabisco for an astounding $25 billion. This makes the acquisition the largest LBO to date and sent CEO Ross Johnson into full retirement. Continue reading to learn more about Kravis’s final offer for RJR Nabisco.
What are the best Barbarians at the Gate quotes? What do these quotes tell us about the unusual nature of the largest LBO in history? Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s book Barbarians at the Gate uncovers the story of the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco. The competitive nature of the bidding and the high price for the company made it one of the most talked-about LBOs in history. Below we’ll look at a few quotes from Barbarians at the Gate quotes with context.
Why do people like stories? What answer can we find in the reason why storytelling developed in the first place? Stories aren’t just entertaining; they also satisfy a neurological need that humans evolved over millennia. That’s the view of Lisa Cron, who argues that our brains evolved to absorb important survival information through stories. Read more to understand why Cron urges writers to write in a way that satisfies our brains’ expectations of a story.
What’s the truth about the difference between the right brain and the left brain? Is one dominant over the other? Is one more important than the other? In The Master and His Emissary, Iain McGilchrist argues that pop psychology has given us a wrong—and dangerous—impression of the brain’s hemispheres. He contends that the right hemisphere is more important—and that our failure to recognize this threatens to rob our lives of meaning and happiness. Continue reading for an overview of this contrarian book.
How did eukaryotes evolve? How can we even go about figuring it out? Biochemist Nick Lane follows clues provided by introns to learn how eukaryotes evolved. He takes us on a journey through time, explaining how eukaryotic life might have experienced ever greater organization and complexity, eventually evolving into the plant and animal kingdoms we know today. Keep reading to learn what Lane believes about the evolution of eukaryotes.