The New Tycoons, Jason Kelly
The New Tycoons, Jason Kelly
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The New Tycoons
Inside the Trillion Dollar Private Equity Industry That Owns Everything

Author: Jason Kelly

Narrator: Brett Barry

Unabridged: 8 hr 2 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Ascent Audio

Published: 07/20/2020


Synopsis

Private Equity firms, once tight-knit partnerships, have broadened their reach substantially, building or acquiring other businesses, from giving mergers advice to managing hedge funds, to underwriting stock and bond offerings. The majority have gone public, offering stock to retail investors, ensuring steady access to more money, and providing a means for which the billionaire founders (most of whom are already in their 60s) to cash out their holdings. This book will take the reader behind the scenes of these firms, understanding their origins and synthesizing the overlapping stories of their creations, evolutions and ambitions into a narrative as they prepare for significant public scrutiny as public companies. The Cast of Characters: Blackstone -- Stephen Scharzman, Tony James: A laid-off Lehman Brothers investment banker teams with his Lehman mentor to create a small advisory boutique. A decade later, he taps a savvy fellow banker who oversees an expansion and public offering, quadrupling its assets under management in a decade and leading the charge to the public markets. Carlyle -- William Conway, Daniel D'Aniello, David Rubenstein: Two young Washington area CEOs team with a lawyer and former Carter administration official to leverage their Washington connections into the first truly global private equity firm, tapping heretofore unknown, but massive, pockets of wealth in the Middle East.  KKR -- Henry Kravis, George Roberts: A pair of Midwestern cousins who want to work for themselves join their Bear Stearns boss (who eventually leaves them for being too aggressive). They establish themselves definitively with the then record-setting RJR Nabisco deal, where they're dubbed Barbarians at the Gate. Almost two decades later, they'll top themselves twice to set new records. TPG -- David Bonderman, James Coulter: A wealthy Texan hires an historical trust lawyer from Washington to fight a freeway scheduled to run through Fort Worth. The lawyer ends up staying on as his top adviser and meets a brash young former consultant. The unlikely pair breaks off from the billionaire to buy Continental Airlines for $80 million, selling it a handful of years later for 20 times their money. They go on to buy the likes of Burger King and J. Crew.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Joseph

The biggest drawback about this book is in the editing. Key concepts about private equity aren't sufficiently covered until near the end of the book. In its place there is a lot of personal profiles and company profiles of the major players in private equity. There is a good story here--the decision......more

Goodreads review by Jean

The first time I paid much attention to the term “private equity companies” was when Mitt Romney was running for President. They reported he made a fortune while working at Bain Capital a private equity firm. I saw the title of this book and grabbed it hoping I could learn more about this confusing......more

Goodreads review by Matt

When Jason Kelly's primer on the private equity industry was published in 2012, Americans had a serious incentive to learn at least the basics of this complex, somewhat secretive industry. Mitt Romney, the GOP presidential nominee, had made his fortune as the CEO of Bain Capital -- one of the more n......more