"You each supported my appointment": WL memorandum, "Our Future Course," October 24, 2000.
"I remain chairman": Euromoney, January 2001.
"It would not be abnormal": Ibid.
"cutting off Loomis at the knees": Euromoney, November 2001.
"We've been through a period of turmoil": BusinessWeek, November 27,2000.
"The mood was ghastly": WSJ, November 13, 2002.
"We are the independent and private": WL memorandum to the executive committee, October 24, 2000; WL speech, November 2000; and Institutional Investor, December 2000.
"If we were to sell": BusinessWeek, November 27, 2000.
"The price was obscene": "Dressing Up Lazard," Bloomberg Magazine, February 2003.
"Bollore caused just a huge distraction": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"It's all about IQ": Rich Karlgaard, "Microsoft's IQ Dividend," WSJ, July 28,2004.
"The crux for all investment banks": Economist, November 30, 2000.
"The machinery, the culture": AE, December 10, 2000.
"After an outstanding year": AE, December 22, 2000.
Chapter 18: "Lazard May Go Down Like the Titanic!"
"That was the beginning": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Within weeks, Michel was undermining": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Bill actually had come in on": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"He was told by them": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"I mean, people thought that it": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Richard has been a gifted banker": Article/press release on Microsoft.com, November 30, 2000.
"But basically, Bill insisted": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Now, you have to remember": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"All of us also knew": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Everybody in Europe wanted more points": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Bill, on this first working day of 2001": MDW to WL, January 2, 2001.
"has $50 million too much expense": AE, January 13, 2001.
"some sort of gesture": Ibid.
"This would be a fine start": Ibid.
"Michel, with whom Bill had discussed": Ibid.
"our usual very frank conversation"; Ibid.
"We will either work": Ibid.
"It is interesting to consider why": Ibid.
"to hold the firm together": Ibid.
"Loomis played an interesting, watchful game": AE, January 20, 2001.
"deeply and unusually depressed": AE, February 1, 2001.
"yet another threat to quit": Ibid.
"big cuts" in New York: Ibid.
"In a nutshell": Ibid.
"equity scheme": Ibid.
"a rather excited voice": Ibid.
"chasing abortive schemes": Ibid.
"Bill appeared to lose his temper": Ibid.
"There will be trouble ahead": Ibid.
"three hours to chew on": Ibid.
"pretty bizarre scheme": Ibid.
"Bill's behaviour is quite against the grain": Ibid.
The account of Verey's mood: Ibid.
"He simply could not face": Ibid.
"unacceptable": AE, February 4,2001.
follow-up meeting: Interview with Lazard partners.
Verey sent a letter: AE, February 4,2001.
"received the impression": AE, February 22, 2001.
"Our name in the world is excellent": MDW speech at February 20, 2001, executive committee meeting; speech dated February 12, 2001.
"commitment fest": AE, February 22, 2001.
"Michel made it clear": Ibid.
"could impact the timing": Ibid.
"good book about what I have seen": NYT, January 23, 2001.
"I decided that I couldn't go back": Institutional Investor, May 2001.
"No, you know I can't do this": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.
released him from a provision: Ibid.
"Well, we can't do that": AE, February 22, 2001.
"extraordinary exercise": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.
"I could go to court": Ibid.
"If they voted to release you": Ibid.
Two points were communicated: AE, February 22, 2001.
"Another bizarre affair": Ibid.
"The idea was that Lazard could use": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.
"So Felix is back": Lazard chat room on Vault.com, April 26, 2001.
"Isn't Felix in his early 70s?": Ibid., April 27, 2001.
"Even with his return": Ibid., April 27, 2001.
"I think bringing Felix back": Ibid., April 27, 2001.
"Seems like Felix is": Ibid., May 10,2001.
"Felix is truly the best": Richard Emerson on Vault.com, June 21, 2001.
"We see the writing on the wall": Lazard chat room on Vault.com, March 15, 2001.
"Due to the fact that MDW": Ibid., March 16, 2001.
"In the next two weeks": Ibid., March 17, 2001.
"There are rumors of layoffs": Ibid., March 19, 2001.
"First of all": Ibid., March 20, 2001.
"Lazard's reputation": Ibid., March 31, 2001.
"Imagine being in the middle": Ibid., March 31, 2001.
"I got a call from Bill Loomis": Ibid., April 2, 2001.
"It is shit": Ibid., April 1, 2001.
"Everyone at the firm knows it": Ibid.
"First, you had this level of expectations": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"By March, he was saying": Interview with a Lazard partner.
Project S: AE; and interviews with Lazard partners.
"The day we go public one way or another": AE, around February 22, 2001 (undated entry).
"Who owns Lazard": AE, March 18,2001.
"shabbily dealt with": Ibid.
"If Loomis goes ahead": Ibid.
"cope with the 'rumours'": AE, April 24, 2001.
"it had been a rotten day": Ibid.
"on a friendly basis": Ibid.
"honorably consider alternatives": Ibid.
"The difficulty I had with David": Interview with MDW, January 31, 2005.
"My first loyalty is to Michel David-Weill": Interview with David Verey, May 31, 2005.
"very touched by that": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.
"Your essential qualities": Bruno Roger to Adrian Evans, May 11, 2001.
"He lost control of the situation completely": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"We need to have more vibrant incentives": WL speech, May 25, 2001.
"A house divided against itself": E-mail correspondence between WL and Adrian Evans, June 26, 2001.
Michel had three messages for him: E-mail correspondence between WL and Adrian Evans, July 6, 2001.
"With that, I went to bed": Ibid.
"if others wish to put themselves": Ibid.
"Perhaps it was an illusion": AE, July 12, 2001.
"both publicly and privately": Ibid.
"we have to work together": Ibid.
"EAT BEFORE READING": Adrian Evans e-mail, July 20, 2001.
"This will be colorful, if 'disturbing'": Ibid.
"$70 million is unlikely to be": Lazard partner e-mail, July 21, 2001.
"lecture on Paris' feeling of isolation": Evans e-mail, July 21, 2001.
"When you say to partners": Interview with Bruno Roger.
"To imagine Michel becoming involved": Evans e-mail, July 21, 2001.
"We need to be honest in our assessment": WL to MDW, July 23, 2001.
"And that was the only future": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"I would say that I started": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"ridiculous to float or sell now": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"We might prefer restructuring": Ibid.
"So nothing will happen": Ibid.
"You suggest that we 'fire' Tom": WL e-mail to MDW, July 31, 2001.
"angry, quarrelsome" one: AE, August 2
, 2001.
"The guy was the manager": Interview with MDW, December 1, 2004.
"I think he was losing confidence": Ibid.
Summer 2001 efforts to hire Bruce Wasserstein: Interviews with MDW, FGR, WL, and a spokesman for BW.
"unproductive and highly dangerous": AE, August 29, 2001.
"we speak with them all the time": Ibid.
Two meetings in Biarritz: Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.
"they are dying to do something": AE, August 29, 2001.
"Personally, I am not against it": Ibid.
"were all the same": Ibid.
"You would be bribed to stay": Ibid.
"I would not work hard": Ibid.
"There was my knowledge": Interview with MDW, December 1, 2004.
"I mean, even though they went to talk": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Felix would've done it": Ibid.
"It's unclear how far the Lehman discussions got": Interview with Ken Wilson, January 18, 2005.
"with pleasure": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.
discussions between the two firms: Interviews with Lazard bankers; and WSJ, November 7, 2001.
two-paragraph agreement: Interviews with MDW and WL.
"Because I am an eternal optimist": Interview with MDW, September 15,2004.
"I spent the rest of the day": Vernon Jordan sermon to the First Congregational Church in Atlanta, September 23, 2001.
"The curious thing with me": Interview with MDW, September 15, 2004.
"I was not totally against a deal with Lehman": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.
"Look, you know I never participated": Ibid.
"There are five of us stuck here" and story of partners flying back to the United States in MDW's jet; Interview with a Lazard partner.
"I have long been concerned and articulate": WL e-mail to Adrian Evans, September 23, 2001.
"joking" and "happy": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Very interesting, very odd, very puzzling": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Fundamentally, if you shut down Capital Markets": AE, October 16, 2001.
"menacing monotone" and "To be perfectly frank": Ibid.
"Every time we have this discussion": Ibid.
he fired Tashjian: Interviews with Lazard partners.
"Gratuitous violence": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"a watershed event": Interview with MDW, December 1, 2004.
"In a partnership": Ibid.
"I reached the conclusion": Interview with WL, June 30, 2005.
"At that point I knew": Interview with Ken Jacobs, October 27, 2004.
"So here I am in a situation": Interview with WL, June 30, 2005; and WL e-mail to Scott Hoffman, October 21,2001.
"His advice was to hold on": Interview with WL, June 30, 2005.
"Maybe you were once a banker": Ibid.
"This was an impossible situation": Ibid.
"I thought about it on Sunday": Ibid.
"Otherwise, I just get tarred": Ibid.; and WL e-mail, October 20, 2001.
"goes far enough in NYC": Marcus Agius e-mail to WL, October 22, 2001.
"I must also tell you": Interview with WL, June 30, 2005.
"You are a great partner": WL e-mail to Adrian Evans, October 23, 2001.
"work with clients and focus": Lazard press release, October 24, 2001; and WSJ, October 25, 2001.
"If Michel had to offer them the olive branch": Daily Deal, October 24,2001.
"He was so much in David-Weill's shadow": Euromoney, November 2001.
"People don't have a long time": Interview with MDW, December 1, 2004.
"was a catastrophe": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Turning back the clock": Interview with MDW, September 15, 2004.
"never been able to keep": Bloomberg, October 24, 2001.
"the high-profile departures": "Men Overboard," Economist, November 3,2001.
"A change is required": AE, November 8, 2001.
"basically whatever we want": Ibid.
"He argued that he increases": Ibid.
"Is this better or worse": Ibid.
"The deal is on": Ibid.
"Well, I've got to say": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.
sold his eponymous firm: Numerous press reports.
"That's utter baloney": Vicky Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans," Vanity Fair, April 2005.
"It's classic Bruce": Interview with a former Wasserstein Perella partner.
"he should be free to leave": WSJ, November 15, 2001.
"old news": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"unfinished business": Interview with SR, September 14, 2001.
"Before Bruce ever got into a discussion": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"Who would take this job?": BusinessWeek, November 12, 2001.
WL call to Fuld: Interview with WL; and WL letter to Fuld, November 8,2001.
"Dear Lenny": WSJ, November 15,2001.
"After 25 years of stewardship": MDW memorandum/press release, November 15, 2001.
"I am delighted to join Lazard:" Ibid.
"To take a firm with potential": BW on The Charlie Rose Show, January 4,2006.
"great firm," "intergenerational transition," "Classic small business problem": Ibid.
"It was obviously a deal": Interview with a Lazard partner.
"One of the most interesting things": Bruce Wasserstein, Big Deal (New York: Warner Books, 1998), and Harvard Business School Bulletin, October 1996.
"Well, I had two thoughts, not reactions": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.
nothing short of suicidal: Interviews with Francois Voss (January 31, 2005) and other Lazard partners.
"I knew the accounts of the Wasserstein firm": Interview with MDW, January 12, 2005.
"It is very difficult to manage a private firm": Interview with MDW, September 15, 2004.
"Both are considered brilliant bankers": WSJ, November 16, 2001.
joint telephone interview: Ibid.
"People should worry about customers": Financial Times, November 16,2001.
"There is no sharing": BusinessWeek, November 16, 2001.
reaction within Lazard: Various press reports.
"inherited a ship with a mutinous crew": NYT, January 4, 2002.
"off on the same duck shoot": Economist, December 5, 2002.
"Clearly Michel knew what he had to do": Interview with a Lazard partner.
Chapter 19. Bid-'Em-Up Bruce
"Bruce is very creative": People, June 25, 1990.
"His PR machine was working": Interview with Lynne Killin, March 2, 2006.
"female pioneer in corporate America": New York, November 18, 2002.
"little like Penn and Teller": Phoebe Hoban, "The Family Wasserstein," New York, January 4, 1993.
"Morris was an extremely gentle": Interview with a Wasserstein family friend.
"They were in the ribbon business": Interview with Ivan Cohen, January 23,2006.
"We should all be as happy": Ibid.
Information about Abner Wasserstein: ARC of Monroe County Web site and other press reports.
"Bruce was a genius": New York, November 18, 2002; and Vicky Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans," Vanity Fair, April 2005.
"One day, this is going to be mine": "Dressing Up Lazard," Bloomberg Magazine, February 2003.
"Sweetie, he's a play unto himself!": Pamela Wasserstein at Wendy Wasserstein's memorial service, March 13, 2006.
"It had a major effect on him": Paul Cowan, "The Merger Maestro," Esquire, May 1984.
"He was always the sort of kid": Ibid.
"When I was a kid": L. J. Davis, "Wall Street's Wonder Boys," NYT Magazine, January 28, 1990.
The headlines and "The funny thing about the whole situation": Bruce Wasserstein, "Never Trust a Naked Editor," Publick Occurrences, Michigan Daily, January 19, 1967.
"He had a tremendous intellect": Interview with Harvey Wasserman, December 22, 2005.<
br />
"First you pick a department": Bruce Wasserstein, "Raw Power Beats System Every Time," Michigan Daily, April 8,1966.
"Let's put it this way": Interview with Killin, March 2, 2006.
"Commuting by bicycle between the two schools": Harvard Business School Bulletin, October 1996.
a collection of thirteen essays: Bruce Wasserstein and Mark J. Green, eds., With Justice for Some (Boston: Beacon Press, 1970).
"He damned well better have": Interview with Killin, March 2, 2006.
"He always had a lot of fish to fry": Interview with Ralph Nader, June 27, 2005.
"I remember him saying": Interview with Killin, March 2, 2006.
collaborated on another book: Mark J. Green with Beverly C. Moore Jr. and Bruce Wasserstein, The Closed Enterprise System (New York: Grossman, 1972).
his thirty-four-page: Bruce Wasserstein, "British Merger Policy from an American Perspective," Yale Law Journal 82, no. 4 (1973).
"almighty lucre": Interview with Nader, June 27, 2005.
Bruce keeps a framed copy: Interview with a friend of BW.
"First of all": Interview with Killin, March 2, 2006.
"So she was making fun of my rocks": Ibid.
"We were doing taxes": Ibid.
"I remember reading about all the fees": Institutional Investor, June 1987.
"I don't think I was at the meeting": Ibid.
"When the M&A effort at First Boston": Wasserstein, Big Deal. 549. "The structure of the deal was so complex": Davis, "Wall Street's Wonder Boys."
written the blueprint: Bruce Wasserstein, Corporate Finance Law: A Guide for the Executive (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978).
"The deal business is unfortunately replete": Ibid., p. 4.
"He has great ambition and great confidence": Interview with a friend of BW.
The Bruce brand got a boost: Robert Metz, NYT, May 2, 1980.
"heavy-set and blond": NYT, April 21, 1981.
"Wasserstein is best at figuring out": Tim Metz, WSJ, April 21, 1982.
"Simon and Garfunkel": L. J. Davis, "Slightly Tarnished," New York Times Magazine, January 28, 1990.
"I spotted this tall": Interview with Clarence Fanto, February 4, 2006.
"Overweight and chronically rumpled": Cowan, "Merger Maestro."
"Of course that is a good thing": Ibid.
"What I'd like to think of as the hallmark": Institutional Investor, June 1987.
"transform Wall Street": WSJ, November 6, 1986.
"There was a swirl of controversy": Institutional Investor, June 1987.
"These collapses will be long": Carol Loomis, "The Biggest Looniest Deal Ever," Fortune, June 18, 1990.
The last tycoons: the secret history of Lazard Frères & Co Page 99
