Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

The Landmark Corporate Takeover

• 💡 Barbarians at the Gate is a #1 New York Times bestseller, chronicling the fall of RJR Nabisco due to a buyout by investment firm KKR.
• 🎯 This event, occurring in October and November of 1988, was the largest takeover in Wall Street history, marking a high point of a new gilded age.
• 🔑 The book explores the ruthless and rapacious style of finance in the 1980s, detailing how an old-line industrial powerhouse became its victim.

Key Players and High Stakes

• ⚡ The frenzy began with Ross Johnson's secret plan to buy out RJR Nabisco, attracting major takeover players.
• 🧠 Prominent figures included Henry Kravis of KKR, Peter Cohen of Shearson Lehman Hutton, and Ted Forstmann, alongside numerous bankers, lawyers, and accountants.
• 🚀 The narrative captures the brazen displays of ego and the ultimate story of greed and glory that redefined global business deals.

Journalistic Approach and Accuracy

• ✅ Authors Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, as Wall Street Journal reporters, had extensive access to all participants, allowing for detailed reconstruction.
• 🔬 They extensively reconstructed dialogue and guarded against inaccuracies by checking with a variety of sources, often interviewing every person in critical meetings.
• 📌 The authors acknowledge the journalistic limitation that memories can be selective, noting significant differences in accounts within the text or footnotes.

The Nature of Leveraged Buyouts

• 📊 The book does not offer a definitive judgment on the impact of leveraged buyouts (LBOs) on the American economy, but contends some companies are better suited than others.
• 📈 Success or failure of an LBO typically cannot be determined for 3 to 7 years, as the events in the book represent the "birth" of an LBO for RJR Nabisco.
• ⚠️ At the time of writing, the reborn RJR Nabisco was barely a year old, with its ultimate fate still uncertain.

Behind the Scenes and Author's Notes

• 👏 The authors express gratitude to numerous individuals, including Norman Pearlstein of The Wall Street Journal and their editor Richard Cot of Harper & Row, for their support.
• 💖 Special thanks are extended to their wives, Betsy Morris and Mara Burrough, for their invaluable support, editing, and patience during the writing process.
• 💬 The prologue introduces Steve Goldstone, a lawyer, discussing dire predictions with Ross Johnson, whom Goldstone perceives as naive regarding the impending events.