Barbarians at the gate
by Bryan Burrough, John Helyar · first published 1920
62% recommend37% neutral1% critical
Why HN recommends it
Page-turning journalistic account of the RJR Nabisco leveraged buyout that makes LBOs, deal mechanics and banker excess easy to grasp; suits newcomers to finance and anyone curious how takeovers happen.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
Over six months on the New York Times bestseller list, Barbarians at the Gate is the definitive account of the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Bryan Burrough and John Helyar's gripping record of the frenzy that overtook Wall Street in October and November of 1988 is the story of deal makers and pulicity flaks, of strategy meetings and society dinners, of boardrooms and bedrooms, giving us not only an unprecedentedly detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era. As com
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If you want to know more about PE firms and LBOs, check out the book Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco: https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0061655554
on “Apollo Global is buying Rackspace for $4.3B” ↗…usually business profiles/bios of founders/companies. 1) iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business 2) The Google Story 3) The Perfect Store: Inside eBay 4) Paypal Wars 5) Barbarians at the Gate (not tech-related but one of the best business books of all time)
on “Ask HN: What's the best first business book for a programmer?” ↗…by Filkins. Sort of a series of vignettes by a reporter covering Afghanistan, then Iraq during the war. I still don't know what to think / feel about it, but I've recommended the book several times. - Barbarians at the Gate, by Burroughs, Helyar. A classic that I put off reading for years because I thought it would be a slog (it's sort of long), but I finished in a week. I love business history / case study books, and this…
on “Ask HN: Best books you read in 2017?” ↗…forced to gather in a designated area), and perhaps in this era of individualism, loneliness, and anonymity that is a greater good. For more on RJR Nabisco, I suggest this great book from the 80’s: Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco https://www.amazon.com/dp/0061655554
on “QuitGenius (YC W18) raises $2M to help people quit smoking” ↗…problem finding a book. You could also find the books on Amazon you like and then check out the recommendations. That should lead you to others. To suit your interest in business I would recommend: - Barbarians at the Gate: The Rise and Fall of RJR Nabisco (I'll never look at public companies the same after reading this book) - Founders at Work
on “Ask HN: Got a Kindle. What now? What books should I read?” ↗…Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury The Mysterious Island - Jules Verne Discipline of Market Leaders - Michael Treacy, Fred Wiersema False Memory - Dean Koontz NOS4A2- Joe Hill Revival - Stephen King Barbarians At The Gate - John Helyar and Bryan Burrough Into Thin Air - John Krakauer How To Measure Anything - Douglas Hubbard and any collection of the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
on “Please recommend a book to read. List for 2015” ↗…King Machine Learning for Hackers - Drew Conway and John Myles White How Doctors Think - Jerome Goopman Cholesterol Clarity: What The HDL Is Wrong With My Numbers? - Jimmy Moore & Eric C. Westman Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco - Bryan Burrough & John Helyar
on “Ask HN: Books with a high signal to noise ratio?” ↗…assets to repay the loan is known as a Leveraged Buy Out (LBO) [0]. It was very trendy in the 1980s but has recently made a comeback. A good book to read on one of the most notorious examples of an LBO is Barbarians at the Gate [1][2] which dealt with the takeover of RJR Nabisco, a large American food and tobacco company. For lighter fare, re-watch the 1990 movie Pretty Woman [3][4] but this time ignore the fluffy romance and…
on “Apollo Global is buying Rackspace for $4.3B” ↗I think it’s time for me to read Bryan Burrough’s great book “Barbarians at the Gate” again.
on “Neiman Marcus files for bankruptcy” ↗list of (most of) the books mentioned in this thread so far. I tried reading every comment but used chatGPT instead. 1. The Big Rich - Texas oil boom. 2. Barbarians at the Gate - Private equity origins. 3. Masters of Doom - John Carmack and Id Software. 4. Einstein by Walter Isaacson - Einstein's discoveries. 5. Houdini!!! - The escape artist and magician. 6. The Double…
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗…by the recent thread about Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos [1] I thought I'd make a thread asking for everyone's favorite books about failed/declining companies. Here is my list: Bad Blood (Theranos) Barbarians at the Gate (RJR Nabisco) The Smartest Guys in the Room (Enron) When Genius Failed (Long Term Capital Management) Empire of Pain (Purdue Pharma) Lights Out (GE) [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29789137
on “Ask HN: Favorite books about failed/declining companies?” ↗Pick up a few books like Liar's Poker, When Genius Failed, and Barbarians at the Gate. That'll give you an engaging intro. Then you can start reading sites like FT, seekingalpha, Bloomberg, etc. A few pieces of advice: under no circumstances do you want to get caught in the weeds of technical…
on “You Are Naturally Short Housing” ↗…to believed one of the bigger insults you could make to a Russian was that he was uncultured - некультурный. Let's show that we are not while making clear that it is Putin and his ilk who represent the barbarians at the gate.
on “Is the Russian Air Force incapable of complex air operations?” ↗…their 401ks, etc. Perversely this is the kind of company PE outfits typically go after - in their worldview it is a waste of leveraging potential not to apply debt to such a company. I recommend reading "Barbarians at the Gate" if you are interested in this topic.
on “Telecommunications company Avaya files for bankruptcy” ↗…a story. I have a lot of books, and I wonder if I could find five that don't discuss unethical behavior if only as counterexample illustrations. Certainly no novels that don't. Among the best though: Barbarians at the Gate, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, most books concerning the history of medicine and any Trump biography published after he leaves office, no doubt. Any Jobs biography. The story of NeXT - his European…
on “Ask HN: Books about “unethical” behavior?” ↗