mellon-investments

Related Subjects: market-economics
Book reviews for "mellon-investments" sorted by average review score:
The White Sharks of Wall Street: Thomas Mellon Evans and the Original Corporate Raiders
Published in Digital by Scribner ()
Author: Diana B. Henriques
Amazon base price: $19.25
List price: $27.50 (that's 30% off!)
Here is the engrossing story of the original corporate raider, Thomas Mellon Evans, who, half a century ago, pioneered a business style that forever changed the American commercial landscape and, ultimately, American life. In The White Sharks of Wall Street, New York Times investigative reporter Diana B. Henriques has crafted a well-researched and entertaining account of this renegade trailblazer, who championed "shareholder rights" and "down-sized" companies, and built "conglomerates," decades before the terms had been coined.

Preferring to call himself a "corporate re-juvenator," Evans often worked without a salary, pealing off assets, eliminating entire layers of middle management, always obsessed with the bottom line. He waged war with unparalleled brilliance, accusing corporate America of forgetting who its real owners were. Henriques writes, "Evans was a man so far ahead of his contemporaries that he had moved into the shadows before the full daylight of his business style had dawned on the rest of Corporate America. At every step of his career, he was barging in where few would follow--at first. But follow they did, at last." Proxy fights, hostile takeovers, tenders and countertenders, greenmail, golden parachutes, poison pills, and shark repellent--it's all here, the deep roots of present-day corporate merger and acquisitions strategy. White Sharks is a compelling and dramatic story of power, greed, ambition, and personal tragedy that illuminates an otherwise obscure period of Wall Street history. --Scott Harrison

Average review score:

A solid book on the history of corporate raiders
I found this book to be filled with fascinating stories about Thomas Evans and other like him who changed the face of Wall Street in the 50's. As far as corporate raiders, most people only think back to the 1980's for when it began. This book will give you insight into how it all began half a century ago. It is not just a single story, but numerous ones about various radiers and the companies they targeted. For anyone who wants to learn about Wall Street history, this book is a must.

If there was not blood to attract them, they created it.
This book filled a gap for me in the history of Wall Street and some of its more colorful participants. I think there is a tendency for the more notable "raiders" and their like to be confined to the 1980's and 1990's, and as this book points out this could not be further from the truth.

This book chronicles the exploits of men like; Thomas Mellon Evans, Lou Wolfson, and Leopold Silverstein. These individuals were out inventing the type of financial transactions that today are commonplace, and seem to have a rather brief history. The truth is that these; raiders, proxy fighters, liquidators, were using sinking funds, Leveraged Buy Outs, and Junk Bonds long before Michael Milken heard the term. In fact much of this took place before he and Ivan Boesky and their crowd were born.

The book delves into specific deals that are enticing reading just by there names. In 1955 a complicated price-fixing scheme that included companies still doing business today operated a system known as the "phase of the moon".

Shark-repellent, poison pills, greenmail, side deals, collusion were all in a days work. What was also interesting is these people never had their fill, many ending in bankruptcy court half a century after they had started.

The did what they had to do to get what they wanted, and if that meant convincing a 90 year old woman to part with her shares, it was just another day in the trenches.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in Wall Street History in general, and the specific predecessors of today's big names. Long before "Chainsaw Al" there were men hacking away at companies that even he would have found audacious.

The Authoress does a wonderful job of relating this History in a readable easily accessible format, which is well worth a reader's time. You will be amply rewarded.

I don't know how Trump got in this; his contribution was an endorsement on the book jacket. Not one of his deals made the book.

Great addition to your financial library.

Must read financial history
An important book that covers an overlooked era and subject.

Zacks Snapshot: Company Report FOR MELLON FINL CRP(MEL) provided BY ZACKS INVESTMENT RESEARCH, INC.
Published in Digital by Zacks Investment Research (27 March, 2004)
Amazon base price: $9.95

Related Subjects: market-economics