Thinking of an MBA or Finance career? Be Inspired by Bruce
Bruce Wasserstein was the pioneer of the M&A business. He worked on more than 1,000 deals, developed numerous M&A tactics and perhaps earned more money than anyone else advising firms.
Here is a look at what various news outlets had to say in the wake of his passing.
On Wasserstein’s legacy, the Daily Telegraph writes: “Never shy of controversy, Wasserstein could claim to have had a hand in more than 1,000 merger and acquisition deals in the course of his career, amounting to some $250 billion in value. Whether in defence or on the side of the hostile bidder, he deployed a mastery of takeover techniques, a sharp tongue and formidable powers of persuasion to keep his clients in the game to the last hand – hence “Bid ‘Em Up Bruce”, a sobriquet which he was said to hate.”
Meanwhile, MarketWatch’s David Weidner writes: “The 61-year-old adviser, who was both derided and championed as “Bid ‘Em Up” Bruce, changed deal making from a restrained and formal corporate practice to Wall Street’s equivalent of financial sport….His early death leaves an incomplete body of work. His firm, Lazard Ltd. is gearing up and leading a new wave of M&A. His vanity publications, New York and The Deal magazines, still have work to do in terms of winning audiences, advertisers and respect.”
One of the big question hanging in the air is what impact will his death have on Lazard? Jeffrey Goldfarb over at Breakingviews writes that the loss will be painful — “although probably more so personally and emotionally than strategically or financially.” Wasserstein’s work was largely done at Lazard, Goldfrab writes. Since arriving at Lazard in 2002, Wassterstein had united the firm, divided across three cities on two continents, replenished its ranks of experienced bankers and had taken the Lazard public. “Wasserstein may have been able help Lazard navigate these new-millennium challenges. But the firm has withstood plenty of downturns and transitions over the decades. An institution that has lasted 161 years can sustain the loss of even the most outstanding banker,” Galdfarb writes.
Perhaps one aspects of his legacy that has garnered bit less attention is the number of deal makers he mentored. Besides the bankers he lured to Lazard, the list includes Douglas Braunstein at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., Raymond McGuire at Citigroup Inc., Hugh McGee at Barclays Plc, Laurence Grafstein at Rothschild and Robert Pruzan at Centerview Partners, writes Bloomberg.
While Wasserstein was known as a banker, for those that worked at the University of Michigan’s student newspaper in the mid-to-late 1960s, “Wasserstein was known for his shrewd reporting, strategic and brilliant mind and jumbled appearance,” writes the Michigan Daily. He served as the Daily’s executive editor from 1966 to 1967. His most notable coverage? His reporting on the University’s response to a subpoena from the House Un-American Activities Committee in September 1966.
According to Westport, Conn., First Selectman Gordon F. Joseloff, who went to high school with Wasserstein and worked on the school’s paper with him, journalism was his secret passion.
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