Oct. 14, 2009 Lazard CEO Bruce Wasserstein Dead. He was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat last Sunday. "Wasserstein, 61, has served as head of Lazard since 2002. He took the company public in May 2005 and was named its CEO. Wasserstein is in the middle of serving a contract that keeps him at the company through 2012. Lazard has remained relatively strong throughout the economic downturn. Its second-quarter profits fell 18 percent to $28.2 million, or 34 cents per share, but easily surpassed expectations. New York-based Lazard's financial restructuring business has thrived during the downturn, offsetting declines in mergers and acquisitions advisory business. Merger activity is expected to pick up in the coming quarters as the economy and financial markets begin to recover. Lazard is currently serving as the financial adviser for Kraft Foods Inc.'s unsolicited $16.7 billion takeover bid of British candy maker Cadbury PLC. Aside from his work at Lazard, Wasserstein serves as chairman of Wasserstein&Co., a private investment firm. Wasserstein&Co. targets investments between $30 million and $150 million. It has investments in companies ranging from Penton Media Inc., a publisher of trade magazines, to gourmet food seller Harry&David. Wasserstein also owns New York Media Holdings LLC, which publishes New York magazine. He has been a fixture on Wall Street since the 1980s, when he helped run First Boston Corp., before co-founding an investment bank, Wasserstein Perella Group Inc., with Joseph Perella. Wasserstein worked on such landmark deals as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts' takeover of RJR Nabisco in the late '80s, and the Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter and AOL-Time Warner mergers. Wasserstein was CEO of Wasserstein Perella between 1988 and 2001 before selling it to Germany's Dresdner Bank AG for about $1.4 billion. Forbes magazine estimated Wasserstein's net worth at $2 billion. Wasserstein is the brother of Wendy Wasserstein, a Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who died in 2006."
I would not wish him ill. But corporate raiders such as he have destroyed countless companies by transferring the capitol from the manufacturing company to his firm in a kind of theivery allowed in no other country but this one.
RIP Mr Wasserstein. Actually this should give us food for thought, what is the pt of accumulating all this wealth for a moment's glory? What is truly worth living and going for? It is time we get away from this materialist spirit that has gripped our nation and return to an introspection of our souls I am reminded by a quote of the Buddha when he said," This existence of ours is as transient as Autumn clouds. To watch the birth and death of beings is like looking at the movements of a dance. A lifetime is a flash of lightning in the sky. Rushing by, like a torrent down a steep mountain. - Buddha
Who cares about Wasserstein, Captain Lou has left us forever.. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/2...egendary_wwfera_wrestling_manager_and_ci.html