The Predators' Ball Concepts

The Predators' Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the JunkBond Raiders

by Connie Bruck · 1 Jun 1989 · 507pp · 145,878 words

’s wide, stately, palm-tree-lined streets. Their destination was the Beverly Hilton, where the annual Drexel High Yield Bond Conference—by now known as the Predators’ Ball—was being held, just a few blocks from Drexel’s West Coast office. Breakfast was served at 6 A.M., a concession to popular tastes

Wall Street: How It Works And for Whom

by Doug Henwood · 30 Aug 1998 · 586pp · 159,901 words

(1973). The Go-Go Years (New York: Weybright and Talley). Brown, Norman O. (1985). Life Against Death (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press). Bruck, Connie (1988). The Predators' Ball (New York: The American Lawyer/Simon and Schuster). Bulow, Jeremy, and Paul Klemperer (1991). "Rational Frenzies and Crashes," Centre for Economic Policy Research Discussion Paper

Extreme Money: Masters of the Universe and the Cult of Risk

by Satyajit Das · 14 Oct 2011 · 741pp · 179,454 words

, London: 348. 20. Quoted in Anders, Merchants of Debt: 74. 21. Quoted in Baker and Smith, The New Financial Capitalists: 82. 22. Connie Bruck (1988) The Predators’ Ball: How Michael Milken and his Junk Bond Machine Staked the Corporate Raiders, Simon & Schuster, New York: 37. 23. Benjamin J. Stein (1992) A License to

Den of Thieves

by James B. Stewart · 14 Oct 1991 · 706pp · 206,202 words

the Levine news came over the wire. "Look at this." Just weeks before, Levine had debuted at Milken's hugely successful 1986 junk-bond conference, the "Predators' Ball," hosting a breakfast on mergers and acquisitions. Milken paused in his phone conversation, glanced at the news on his computer screen, then resumed work as

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Fred said?" one asked. "Yeah. Wow!" said the other. "It's awesome." With the new emphasis on hostile takeovers, the conference that year was dubbed the "Predators' Ball." The sobriquet proved as hard to suppress as the term junk bonds, and it stuck to all subsequent high-yield conferences. Later that afternoon, Joseph

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the main ballroom of the Beverly Hilton as curtains drew back for a screening of one of Drexel's "commercials," now a popular fixture of the Predators' Ball. As the strains of the "Dallas" theme song filled the room, Larry Hagman strode onto the screen, flashing a "Drexel Express titanium card." The card

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's return to the firm, Joseph persuaded him to withdraw and resume his status as a consultant. After all, Engel was still in charge of the Predators' Ball, which had now assumed unprecedented importance as a show of strength in the wake of the government's investigation. As the 1987 conference got underway

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Bruck, Joseph was allowed to read it and comment on the facts, but not make copies. He knew immediately that there would be trouble. Titled The Predators' Ball: The Junk Bond Raiders and the Man Who Staked Them, the book was a thorough, sober study of Drexel, Milken, and several of their clients

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, a groundbreaking examination of Milken's junk-bond empire. The book reported that Drexel had hired prostitutes for the Predators' Ball, that in his early days at Drexel Milken had worn a miner's helmet on the commuter bus so he could read prospectuses in the

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, he relented. On Thursday evening, the emotional tribute ran, complete with Milken voice-overs and stirring music. Even in absentia, Milken was the star of the Predators' Ball. Hovering over the proceedings was a giant banner that read DREXEL BURNHAM PRESENTS HIGH-YIELD CITY 2089; under it was a model of a revolving

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rose, economies of scale declined. Joseph projected a loss in the retail system of $40 to $60 million in 1989 alone. By the time of the Predators' Ball bond conference in April, Joseph had known that a drastic restructuring was imminently necessary. The brokerage system, once the foundation of the firm, would have

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thus the sources cited here may not contain all the detail that appears in the main text. Among the published sources cited, two stand out: The Predators' Ball by Connie Bruck (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988) and Levine & Co. by Douglas Frantz (New York: Henry Holt, 1987). Bruck's seminal work on how

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Michael R. Milken (hereafter cited as "Government's Milken memo"), pp. 3-28. The backgrounds of Burnham, Milken, Joseph, and Drexel are described in Bruck, The Predators' Ball, pp. 23-^10. page 45 W. Braddock Hickman, Corporate Bond Quality and Investor Experience (Princeton University Press, 1958). The book sold just 934 copies. page

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Joseph's allegations, and has never been charged with any wrongdoing in connection with the incident. page 112 Engel's dismissal was reported in Bruck, The Predators' Ball, pp. 337-339. page 116 The 1985 Predators' Ball was the subject of Anthony Bianco, "The Growing Respectability of the Junk Heap," Business Week, Apr

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, 1985. page 118 Bruck reported the presence of prostitutes at the 1985 Predators' Ball, quoting participants such as Fred Sullivan, chairman of Kidde Inc. (Bruck, The Predators' Ball, p. 15). Joseph and Engel deny the assertion. page 118 The quotation is from Peter Dworkin, "The Inside Story on the High Tech of Finance

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Keep Milken from Capitol Hill," Wall Street Journal, Apr. 28, 1988. The attendance of various senators at the 1986 Predators' Ball is described in Bruck, The Predators' Ball, p. 259. page 220 Milken's relationship with David Solomon is the subject of counts four and five of the Milken plea agreement. The Finsbury

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are from Princeton-Newport government exhibit T-1, page A-1627. page 354 Engel's return to Drexel, and subsequent departure, is discussed in Bruck, The Predators' Ball, pp. 338-342. page 355 The Drexel video at the 1987 Predators' Ball was described in Steve Coll, "Drexel's Faithful Sing Praises of Junk

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is from Coll, "Drexel's Faithful." page 356 The quote "When the going gets tough . . ." and description of the junk-bond celebration are from Bruck, The Predators' Ball, p. 348. page 356 The article described is Laurie P. Cohen, "Drexel's New Television Ad Tugs at the Heart but Fudges the Facts," Wall

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House Probe," Wall Street Journal, Apr. 28, 1988. page 381 Milken's attempt to buy Bruck out of her book contract is described in Bruck, The Predators' Ball, p. 359. page 383 Liman has denied that he urged Drexel or its lawyers to try to block Bruck's book. page 383 The article

Dear Chairman: Boardroom Battles and the Rise of Shareholder Activism

by Jeff Gramm · 23 Feb 2016 · 384pp · 103,658 words

in mind—they merely served to build war chests for future raids. In her excellent book about the rise of Michael Milken and Drexel Burnham, The Predators’ Ball, Connie Bruck called Icahn’s battle with Phillips Petroleum “Drexel’s gala coming-out.” As for Carl Icahn, “it was a giant—almost magical—step

Obliquity: Why Our Goals Are Best Achieved Indirectly

by John Kay · 30 Apr 2010 · 237pp · 50,758 words

Salomon Brothers (the firm mercilessly caricatured in Michael Lewis’s Liar’s Poker)12 and Drexel Burnham Lambert (more gently pilloried in Connie Bruck’s The Predators’ Ball).13 Salomon turned bond trading from a backwater into the activity of choice for the financially ambitious, while Drexel Burnham Lambert pioneered the issue of

Triumph of the Yuppies: America, the Eighties, and the Creation of an Unequal Nation

by Tom McGrath · 3 Jun 2024 · 326pp · 103,034 words

, had this annual event, which was now spread out over four days and could feel equal parts pep rally and bacchanal (it had been nicknamed “the Predators’ Ball”). Black limos chauffeured attendees all over Beverly Hills. Lavish dinners were held at some of LA’s finest restaurants. Cozy gatherings were put together that

Billionaire, Nerd, Savior, King: Bill Gates and His Quest to Shape Our World

by Anupreeta Das · 12 Aug 2024 · 315pp · 115,894 words

cultural capital. It was a place driven by excessive greed, outsized bets, and financial scandal, and it was immortalized in books like Den of Thieves, The Predators’ Ball, and Barbarians at the Gate. Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken, for a time, became synonymous with financial crime. The takeover of RJR Nabisco established the

King of Capital: The Remarkable Rise, Fall, and Rise Again of Steve Schwarzman and Blackstone

by David Carey · 7 Feb 2012 · 421pp · 128,094 words

David Smith, The New Financial Capitalists: Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and the Creation of Corporate Value (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1998). Bruck, Predators: Connie Bruck, The Predators’ Ball: The Junk Bond Raiders and the Man Who Staked Them (New York: The American Lawyer / Simon & Schuster, 1988). Burrough and Helyar, Barbarians: Bryan Burrough and

Phishing for Phools: The Economics of Manipulation and Deception

by George A. Akerlof, Robert J. Shiller and Stanley B Resor Professor Of Economics Robert J Shiller · 21 Sep 2015 · 274pp · 93,758 words

, “Takeover Bids, the Free-Rider Problem, and the Theory of the Corporation,” Bell Journal of Economics 11, no. 1 (1980): 42–64. 20. Connie Bruck, The Predators’ Ball: The Inside Story of Drexel Burnham and the Rise of the Junk Bond Raiders (New York: Penguin Books, 1989), pp. 193–240; Robert J. Cole