Their names bounce off the pages of the magazine. Bruce Wasserstein,, Joe Perella,. Chuck Ward, Steve Golub. None of them would remember me, a temporary assistant, sent to man their battle stations in the world of investment banking's mergers and acquisitions in the early 1990's. But I would not forget them. When I was placed for 3 month stint at Wasserstein-Perella, they were the emerging powerhouse in M&A.The mystery shrouding Bruce Wasserstein's death, last October, at 61, fit the billionaire investment banker's M.O. Always secretive, he withdrew further as his health apparently failed and his personal relationships turned tumultuous. With stories about Wasserstein's brilliant rise and the three different Wall Street firms he inspired, including his contentious final act as head of Lazard, WILLIAM D. COHAN profiles a master negotiator who made his own rules.
It was the Wall Street of Gorden Gecko, located in a glass skyscraper in mid-town Manhattan. Somehow, even then, I recognized that I had a bird's-eye view of how these deals and the personalities that drove them, operated. It was not my first assignment to an investment banking firm. I'd just completed another job at a firm, whose name I can not recall, but it was really located on Wall Street with brilliant views of the World Trade Center. I suspect they had concussion and collateral damage on 9/11, for when I went downtown within weeks of the terrorism act, their building was closed, guarded by the NYC police. Downtown and Wall Street was a wasteland of devastation.
Nearly 20 years later, these guys who founded and then sold, Wasserstein-Perella, are still making good copy. And the survivors are still making international deals worth billions thus generating fees into the hundreds of millions of dollars for themselves. Staggering wealth and greed. The Vanity Fair article is not flattering about Bruce Wasserstein who would have been in his early 40's when I happened upon his world, their world, of sharks and other carnivores who travel in packs.
My guy's name is missing from the players list. Just as well. He always impressed me as the new generation of self-sufficient, self-contained executives. At most, he would give me a letter to type and asked that his wife's calls be prioritized. So I was, more or less, for show at Wasserstein-Perella. Every new partner got an assistant if he didn't bring one along with him. It was a man's world where analysts worked all night and the executives took the train home to Greenwich or a car service to dinner and/or a cultural event.
It was all about making money and the art of negotiating the deal. I just happened to work for one of the "nice" guys with a quiet, even temperament. Everybody at this firm was related to someone else in some pararrell universe. It's how business at this level is done. They hire each others children and open the doors to vast wealth. At the time, I never met a woman investment banker but that doesn't mean a few didn't exist.
Among the staff, Wasserstein was already MIA and had a habit of showing up whenever. There was always a long line waiting to meet with him when he was in the office around the corner from where I sat. Joe Perella, whose office was in the opposite corner, was always the scene of action. He scared the shit out me one afternoon, by blasting some analysts about some failure on their part. In the rarefied world of executives, it is the only occasion where I witnessed a leader blowing his top and having a hissy fit. The echo of profanity that filled that large expansive space, even today, is unforgettable. Explosive tempers rattle me, probably because I can have one, too, when pushed too far. Let's just say, on that day, Mr. Perella let loose. It was his style.
As I mentioned the article isn't very flattering to Bruce Wasserstein. Joe Perella is a main, named source of insight as to how his partner ticked. Narcissistic, out of touch, withdrawn, secretive about his health and a sudden, mysterious death is code for mental illness of the manic type. Wasserstein was as crazy as a fox. Brilliant intellect but in the end, no amount of money could buy him health, a sound mind, a peaceful heart or the life-affirming respect of his partners, friends, clients and colleagues. When he died, he was worth billions. So what? He lived large and excessively. Good for him.
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