''The Predators' Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders'', by ''

Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' (''WSJ''), also referred to simply as the ''Journal,'' is an American newspaper based in New York City. The newspaper provides extensive coverage of news, especially business and finance. It operates on a subscriptio ...

'' writer Connie Bruck, largely recounts the rise of

Michael Milken Michael Robert Milken (born July 4, 1946) is an American financier. He is known for his role in the development of the market for High-yield debt, high-yield bonds ("junk bonds"), and his conviction and sentence following a guilty plea on felony ...

, his firm

Drexel Burnham Lambert Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc. was an American multinational investment bank that was forced into bankruptcy in 1990 due to its involvement in illegal activities in the junk bond market, driven by senior executive Michael Milken. At its height, i ...

, and the

leveraged buyout A leveraged buyout (LBO) is the acquisition of a company using a significant proportion of borrowed money (Leverage (finance), leverage) to fund the acquisition with the remainder of the purchase price funded with private equity. The assets of t ...

boom they helped to fuel in the 1980s.

Overview

As the book was published at the apex of the leveraged buyout boom, it was subsequently updated to also address the impending collapse of Drexel Burnham and Michael Milken's conviction on various securities and reporting violations. The title of the book is a reference to an event that Drexel Burnham hosted annually.Junk Bond Conferences Put Accent on Quality
New York Times, April 18, 1988
TIME, Mar. 21, 1988 Among the participants in the Predator's Ball were an array of

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

investors,

corporate raider In business, a corporate raid is the process of buying a large stake in a corporation and then using shareholder voting rights to require the company to undertake novel measures designed to increase the share value, generally in opposition to th ...

s such as

Ron Perelman Ronald Owen Perelman (; born January 1, 1943) is an American banker, businessman, investor, and philanthropist. MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, his company, has invested in companies with interests in groceries, cigars, licorice, makeup, car ...

and

Carl Icahn Carl Celian Icahn (; born February 16, 1936) is an American businessman and investor. He is the founder and controlling shareholder of Icahn Enterprises, a public company and diversified conglomerate holding company based in Sunny Isles Beach, ...

as well as

institutional investor An institutional investor is an entity that pools money to purchase securities, real property, and other investment assets or originate loans. Institutional investors include commercial banks, central banks, credit unions, government-linked ...

s in

high-yield bond In finance, a high-yield bond (non-investment-grade bond, speculative-grade bond, or junk bond) is a bond that is rated below investment grade by credit rating agencies. These bonds have a higher risk of default or other adverse credit even ...

s and management teams from companies that either had been or would be the targets of leveraged buyouts.

reportedly offered to pay the author for all of the copies of the book that would have been sold in exchange for stopping her work on ''Predators' Ball''.

Notable people featured

* Herb Allen, head of investment banking firm

Allen & Company Allen & Company LLC is an American privately held boutique investment bank based at 711 Fifth Avenue, New York. The firm specializes in real estate, technology, media and entertainment. History Founded in 1922 by Charles Robert Allen, Jr., he ...

Samuel Belzberg Samuel Belzberg, (June 26, 1928 – March 30, 2018) was a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. Biography Samuel Belzberg was born to a Jewish family in Calgary, Alberta Leon Black Leon David Black (born July 31, 1951) is an American private equity investor. He is the former CEO of Apollo Global Management, which he co-founded in 1990 with Marc Rowan and Josh Harris. Black was the chairman of the Museum of Modern Art ...

, Drexel Burnham investment banker and founder of

Apollo Management Apollo Global Management, Inc. is an American Asset Management, asset management firm that primarily invests in alternative assets. , the company had $548 billion of assets under management, including $392 billion invested in credit, including ...

Ivan Boesky Ivan Frederick Boesky (; March 6, 1937 – May 20, 2024) was a convicted criminal and an American stock trader who was infamous for his prominent role in an insider trading scandal in the mid-1980s. After getting caught he became a government ...

, arbitrageur implicated in the 1980s insider trading scandal * I.W. "Tubby" Burnham, founder of Burnham & Co., later Drexel Burnham Lambert *

Fred Carr Freddie Alton Carr (August 19, 1946 – February 19, 2018) was an American professional football player who played linebacker for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL) from 1968 to 1977. Carr attended Phoenix Union High ...

, head of First Executive Insurance * James Dahl, Drexel Burnham bond salesman * Donald Engel, Managing Director of Drexel Burnham from 1979 to 1984 * Theodore J. Forstmann, co-founder of buyout firm Forstmann Little & Co. * Howard Gittis, attorney and advisor to

Ronald Perelman Ronald Owen Perelman (; born January 1, 1943) is an American banker, businessman, investor, and philanthropist. MacAndrews & Forbes Incorporated, his company, has invested in companies with interests in groceries, cigars, licorice, makeup, ca ...

Sir James Goldsmith Sir James Michael Goldsmith (26 February 1933 – 18 July 1997) was a French-British financier and politician who was a member of the Goldsmith family. His controversial business and finance career led to ongoing clashes with British media, fr ...

, investor and corporate raider * Samuel J. Heyman, investor and corporate raider *

, investor and corporate raider *

Fred Joseph Frederick H. Joseph (April 22, 1937 — November 27, 2009) was the former president and chief executive officer of the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert during the 1980s. Biography ''The Wall Street Journal'' noted that he was, "The son of a ...

, CEO of

Henry Kravis Henry Roberts Kravis (born January 6, 1944) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist.Kohlberg Kravis Roberts KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global private-equity and investment company. , the firm had completed private-equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $710 billion of total ...

* Dennis Levine, former Drexel Burnham investment banker *

Cy Lewis Salim L. "Cy" Lewis (October 5, 1908 – April 28, 1978) was the Managing Partner of Bear, Stearns & Company, running the company from 1949 until shortly before his death in 1978. Early life Salim or "Cy" was born Salim Lissner Lewis on October ...

, managing partner of

Bear Stearns The Bear Stearns Companies, Inc. was an American investment bank, securities trading, and brokerage firm that failed in 2008 during the 2008 financial crisis and the Great Recession. After its closure it was subsequently sold to JPMorgan Chas ...

* Carl Lindner, Jr., investor and businessman *

Lowell Milken Lowell Jay Milken (born November 29, 1948) is an American businessman, philanthropist, and the co-founder and chairman of the Milken Family Foundation. He is also the founder of the National Institute for Excellence in Teaching, TAP System for T ...

, Michael Milken's brother and former Drexel Burnham employee *

Nelson Peltz Nelson Peltz (born June 24, 1942) is an American billionaire businessman and investor. He is a founding partner, together with Peter W. May and Edward P. Garden, of Trian Partners, an alternative investment management fund based in New York. He i ...

, investor and corporate raider *

T. Boone Pickens Thomas Boone Pickens Jr. (May 22, 1928 – September 11, 2019) was an American business magnate and financier. Pickens chaired the hedge fund BP Capital Management. He was a well-known takeover operator and corporate raider during the 1980 ...

, investor and corporate raider *

Victor Posner Victor Posner (September 18, 1918 – February 11, 2002) was an American businessman. He was one of the highest-paid business executives of his generation. He was a pioneer of the leveraged buyout and became notorious for asset strippin ...

, investor and corporate raider *

Felix Rohatyn Felix George Rohatyn ( ; May 29, 1928 – December 14, 2019) was an American investment banker and diplomat. He spent most of his career with Lazard, where he brokered numerous large corporate mergers and acquisitions from the 1960s through ...

, investment banker *

Meshulam Riklis Meshulam Riklis (; 2 December 1923 – 25 January 2019) was an Israeli financier and businessman. Early years Born in Istanbul to a Russian-Jewish family, Riklis grew up in Tel Aviv, and attended the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium high school; bef ...

, investor and corporate raider *

Martin Siegel Martin A. Siegel (born 1948) is an American former investment banker who was convicted, along with Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken, for insider trading during the 1980s. Biography Born to a Jewish family, Siegel is a graduate of Harvard Business Sc ...

, former

Kidder Peabody Kidder, Peabody & Co. was an American securities firm, established in Massachusetts in 1865. The firm's operations included investment banking, brokerage, and trading. The firm was sold to General Electric in 1986. Following heavy losses, it was ...

and Drexel Burnham investment banker *

Saul Steinberg Saul Steinberg (June 15, 1914, Rm. Sărat, Romania – May 12, 1999, New York City) was a Romanian-born American artist, best known for his work for ''The New Yorker'', most notably ''View of the World from 9th Avenue''. He described himself ...

, investor and corporate raider *

Jeffrey Steiner Jeffrey Steiner (April 3, 1937, Vienna – November 1, 2008) was the chief executive officer of the Fairchild Corporation, the successor corporation of Fairchild Industries, Inc. Steiner was born in Vienna, Austria. His family fled to Turkey durin ...

, investor in high yield bonds, responsible for introducing Drexel to European investors * Lawrence Tisch, investor and head of

Loews Corporation Loews Corporation is an American conglomerate headquartered in New York City. The company's majority-stake holdings include CNA Financial Corporation, Boardwalk Pipeline Partners, Loews Hotels and Altium Packaging. The corporation positions ...

Gerald Tsai Gerald Tsai Jr. (; March 10, 1929 – July 9, 2008) was an investor and philanthropist who helped build Fidelity Investments into a mutual fund powerhouse. After starting Fidelity Investments' first publicly sold aggressive growth fund in 1958 ...

, investor, responsible for building

Primerica Primerica, Inc. is a multi-level marketing company that provides insurance, Investment management, investment and financial services to middle-income families in the United States and Canada. Primerica is the parent company of National Bene ...

Stephen Wynn Stephen Alan Wynn ( Weinberg; born January 27, 1942) is an American real estate developer and art collector. He was known for his involvement in the luxury casino and hotel industry, prior to being forced to step down in 2018. Early in his care ...

, casino and real estate developer

References

General sources

"No Target Seemed Too Big: ''The Predators' Ball''
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', July 10, 1988
"Throwing the Book at Drexel"
''

TIME Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'', June 24, 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Predators' Ball Books about stock traders 1989 non-fiction books Insider trading Drexel Burnham Lambert Books about companies Penguin Books books Michael Milken