Masterclass

Epic and relevant description of greed and manipulation that is relevant throughout the history of humanity

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Gripping

Excellent story of corporate growth and how the greed of bankers and advisors ultimately overtook the goal of growing a business. Great insight into the birth of LBO’s in the 80’s

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Great book

loved this book, the authors narration was excellent and voice very pleasant to listen to. excellent tale of business history.

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Fantastic and still relevant

A fantastic insight into not only the RJR LBO, but the LBO industry and how in finance just like with fashion we go through fads

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Truly excellent

A must read for anyone interested in business, finance or private equity. True life captures in incredible detail

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Outstanding narrative for one of the craziest and most iconic Wall Street excursions in history

A fantastic read. Highly recommend giving it a listen - it takes some complex subjects and negotiations and explains them in the most straightforward way. Really enjoyed listening.

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Brilliantly read.

Glad I waited for this full length version, read the book years ago and a lot of what happened then still applies today. There was a movie made a few years ago with James Garner (I think), but this is so ready for a remake! It has it all; drama, tension and even a bit of comedy. The authors did a fine job of telling this incredible story. Brilliant narrated too.

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I wish I read it years ago!

I loved each of the 22 hours listening of it. The description of the characters, their career history, their behaviour and inclinations are excellent. I met some similar personalities across my own career. Hence reading this book in the 90s would have helped me understand where and how business decisions, no matter how critical, are made or missed. It is written like a thriller, not like a traditional business book. The build-up to the exciting LBO adventure is excellent, the narrator doing a great job. I did not want to end. I would recommend the audible version, not sure I would have been able to keep up with the book format.

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One of the great epics of American capitalism.

Having loved the 1993 movie, I was delighted to find there was a new, unabridged version of the book it was based on. Even if you're not particularly interested in business sagas, the story remains one that stands on it's own as a intriguing drama: full of larger than life characters who seethe with ambition, jealousy, pride, righteous indignation: and it must be said - a fair bit of greed.

It's a story that depicts both the dynamism and excess of the financial industry when it reaches the summit of one of its periodic feeding frenzies. A picture that will seem familiar to students of everything from the Mississippi bubble to the current SPAC fad. A fad that made some people very very rich, shook up complacent managers, and did a lot of damage to ordinary workers in over-leveraged companies.

The authors clearly did a huge amount of research first hand, interviewing all the main participants back in 1989 when memories were still fresh, and it really shows. The book is detailed, very comprehensive, and provides plenty of history to explain the mentalities of the people and organisations it explores.

Despite the poisonous nature of the product they made, one can't help feeling a little sorry for the inhabitant of Winston-Salem, whose company was ripped away from them and turned into a football for Wall Street tycoons who cared not one jot about a community that had been built around Reynolds tobacco for over 100 years.

Narrator is well chosen and keeps up a lively and entertaining pace.

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Seminal tale of wall street greed and unabridged!

Excellent book that deserves to be listened to (or read) unabridged, incredibly well researched by the WSJ authors, full of interesting characters, compelling story and very very tense!

No wanting to give any spoilers this is a cautionary tale about corporate greed of individuals especially in connection with leveraged buyouts where regardless of the ultimate "success" of a LBO the level of debt loaded onto even well run, venerated and successful institutions (see Manchester United F.C.) can seriously inhibit, hinder and ultimately ruin them at the expense of the business and the livelihoods of those working for them. It's pretty demoralising but still prescient today.

The narration is excellent my only criticism is that the authors obviously have their own agenda which can feed into the narrative for instance Henry Kravis is positively portrayed throughout etc. Presumably he was their main source of infromation and access once the dust had settled.

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1 person found this helpful