Big Deal: 2000 And Beyond

by Bruce Wasserstein

A Wall Street deal-maker draws on his experience to trace the history and tactics behind billion-dollar corporate mergers and acquisitions

Genres: Finance, Business

927 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2000

Reviews

[Eric]

Comprehensive in scope yet cursory in detail. Looking back, I think my hopes were too high—I was expecting a combination of (i) business history about mergers; (ii) case studies about takeovers; and (iii) Wasserstein's war stories and deal tactics. The first half of the book is a plodding survey of M&A in various industries, which must have been interesting in 1999 but today is too shallow (and outdated) to provide persuasive lessons. The second half of the book is a primer on dealmaking, but is neither as well-written nor in-depth as the wonderful Anatomy of a Merger by James Freund. Instead, I felt like I was repeating my first M&A course from law school.

[SLenner]

Although I am a CPA and at the time I was familiar with M&A deals of the then deals, I wanted to read about a business person's view of M&A and especially learn about Wasserstein's perspective. Did I learn anything, the answer is YES

[Mike Adeleke]

Excellent. Chronicles the history of M&A and its dealmakers from the late 19th century to the new millennium.

[Aṣwin Mannepalli]

This sociopath decided to write himself a nice self-congratulatory book. drivel. pure drivel.

[Harsh Thaker]

Best primer on the M&A from 1970's to 2000