The Last Tycoons

Tells the story of the world's elite and legendary investment bank - and the men who reigned over it all. In this title, the author himself a former high-level Wall Street banker, takes us into their mysterious and secretive world, telling a story of ruthless ambition, whispered advice, explosive feuds, decadent excesses and unimaginable wealth. William D. Cohan''s The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Frères & Co. is the astonishing story of the world''s most elite and legendary investment bank - and the men who reigned over it all. For over 150 years Lazard Frères had stood apart from other Wall Street firms by offering ultra-wealthy clients the wisdom of its ''Great Men'': from Felix Rohatyn, the escapee from Nazi-occupied France turned financial genius, to Michel David-Weill, the inscrutable French billionaire ''Sun King''; from Steve Rattner, the boy wonder from Long Island who clashed violently with the old guard, to larger-than-life CEO Bruce Wasserstein, ''Bid-Em-Up-Bruce'', who broke with the bank''s traditions and made himself billions in the process. They amassed unimaginable fortunes and would stop at nothing to make a deal, until their titanic egos started to jeopardize everything. In The Last Tycoons William Cohan, himself a former high-level Wall Street banker, takes us into their mysterious and secretive world, telling a story of ruthless ambition, whispered advice, explosive feuds, glamorous mistresses, decadent excesses and unimaginable wealth. ''Spellbinding'' Financial Times ''A definitive account . . it lives up to the billing'' The Times ''Has sent a jolt through Lazard and the rest of Wall Street'' Wall Street Journal William D. Cohan was an award-winning investigative journalist before embarking on a seventeen-year career as an investment banker on Wall Street. His first book, The Last Tycoons, about Lazard, won the 2007 Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award and was a New York Times bestseller. His second book, House of Cards, also a bestseller, is an account of the last days of Bear Stearns & Co. He is also the author of Money and Power: How Goldman Sachs Came to Rule the World.