The Last Tycoons

The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co.

By: William D. Cohan

Narrated by: David Aaron Baker

Wall Street investment banks move trillions of dollars a year, make billions in fees, and pay their executives in the tens of millions of dollars. But even among the most powerful firms, Lazard Frères & Co. stood apart.

Discretion, secrecy, and subtle strategy were its weapons of choice. For more than a century, the mystique and reputation of the "Great Men" who worked there allowed the firm to garner unimaginable profits, social cachet, and outsized influence in the halls of power. But in the mid-1980s, their titanic egos started getting in the way, and the Great Men of Lazard jeopardized all they had built.

Cohan follows Felix, the consummate adviser, as he reshapes corporate America in the 1970s and 1980s, saves New York City from bankruptcy, and positions himself in New York society and in Washington. Felix's dreams are dashed after the arrival of Steve, a formidable and ambitious former newspaper reporter. By the mid-1990s, as Lazard neared its 150th anniversary, Steve and Felix were feuding openly.

The internal strife caused by their arguments could not be solved by the imperious Michel, whose manipulative tendencies served only to exacerbate the trouble within the firm. Increasingly desperate, Michel took the unprecedented step of relinquishing operational control of Lazard to one of the few Great Men still around, Bruce Wasserstein, then fresh from selling his own M&A boutique for $1.4 billion. Bruce's take: more than $600 million. But as it turned out, Great Man Bruce snookered Great Man Michel when the Frenchman was at his most vulnerable.

Look out for the unabridged version of The Last Tycoon, available on April 17th!©2007 William D. Cohan (P)2007 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A competent history of Lazard, a well-written biography of Rohatyn, and an exciting insider's account of Wall Street infighting." (Publishers Weekly)

Starts seemingly gossipy, shallow, but builds

I found the story insufficiently finance-focused at first. But then it built into a very interesting and well-balanced account of the financial feats and the personalities. This bridges a time of great evolution from private banking, as it was called, into a more scaled-up and regulated business.

Many interesting facts

But feels like there were still lots of loose ends. Sometimes gossipy, and not enough of hard finance-focused info and facts