Title

Tearing down the walls : how Sandy Weill fought his way to the top of the financial world-- and then nearly lost it all

Description

The very night that Sanford Sandy" Weill, the chairman and chief executive officer of Citigroup, was being feted on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as CEO of the Year, the television screens above the floor were flashing danger: A congressional panel was tearing into Jack Grubman, the $20-million-a-year telecommunications analyst who worked for Sandy. Had Grubman and Citigroup favored corporate clients at the expense of average investors? Was Citigroup recommending stocks of troubled companies to get their business? The worst scandal of Sandy Weill's long career was breaking around him."."Tearing Down the Walls provides an unprecedented look at how business and finance are conducted at the highest levels, with extraordinary insight into the character and motivations of powerful men and women. And it's the account of the interplay between power and personality - Sandy Weill, the son of an immigrant dressmaker, is a larger-than-life character, a legendary Wall Street CEO whose innovativeness, opportunism, and even fear drove him from the lowliest job on Wall Street to its most commanding heights.Over a span of five decades he has tangled with - and usually bested - some of the most prominent and powerful titans of finance, including the elitist financier John Loeb, the mutual-fund gunslinger and conglomerateur Gerald Tsai, the patrician American Express chairman Jim Robinson, and the cerebral banking visionary John Reed. A consummate deal maker, Sandy Weill amassed and then lost an astounding assemblage of securities firms, only to plunge ahead to rebuild his empire and ultimately create the modern American financial-services supermarket. At the center of Citigroup's recent crises, he's the mogul many are waiting to see topple, while many more are trying to figure out how he succeeded."."Using nearly five hundred firsthand interviews with key players in his life and career - including Weill himself - The Wall Street Journal's Monica Langley chronicles not only his public persona, but his hidden side: blunt and often crude, yet unpretentious and sometimes disarmingly charming. Tearing Down the Walls reveals Weill's tyrannical rages as well as his tearful regrets, the crass stinginess and the unprecedented generosity, the fierce sense of loyalty and the ruthless elimination of potential rivals - even those he loves.Langley illuminates a climb to the top filled with class conflict - Jew against WASP, immigrant against Mayflower descendant, entrepreneur against establishment - and explores the volatile personality that inspires slavish devotion or utter disdain. By highlighting in new and startling detail one man's life in a narrative as richly textured and compelling as a novel, Tearing Down the Walls provides the historical context of the dramatic changes not only in business but also in American society in the last half century. It is essential for understanding the forces that are reshaping the American financial system today."--BOOK JACKET.

Identifier

1117142

074321613X

Creator

Langley, Monica

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

2003

Program air date: May 11, 2003

Publisher

Simon & Schuster

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front and back endpapers consist of a list of influential people who played a role in Sanford Weill's business deals, as well as a list of rather unflattering characterizations of him. Also included are references to the preferential treatment Weill's daughter Jessica received, to several mergers, e.g. the merger of American Express and Shearson, the merger of Shearson and Loeb Rhoades, and the merger with Solomon Smith Barney, as well as references to substantial severance payments to Robert Greenhill, Bob Rubin, and Jamie Dimon. Other notes concern Citicorp: its merger with Travelers Group which was approved by the Fed in 1998; it is identified as the Nation's top issuer of credit cards and employs 170,000 people around the world. These questions and quotes are part of the notes: "You call Sandy "a voracious social climber"." -- "Buffet's quote -- how did you get it?" -- "Did Weill deplore "risk"?" -- "Banks couldn't own securities companies. -- Who changed this?" -- "Over the years, how many people has Sandy ousted?" -- "Why Sandy, Reed and Rubin?" -- "That's the way New York works". -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book. -- Examples: p. 160: "The mergers-and-acquisitions business, another of Wall Street's long-running gravy trains, had come to a screeching halt. And to further test everyone's stamina and fortitude, the lingering savings-and-loan crisis, a scandal of enormous proportions, was intensifying. It all just meant one thing: It was Weill time on Wall Street." -- p. 269: "Buffett took a piece of paper and began writing by hand: "Over several decades, Sandy has demonstrated genius in creating huge value for his shareholders and skillfully implementing ..."He stopped to scratch out "implementing" and wrote "blending" over it, then continued, "and managing acquisitions in the financial-services industry. In my view, Salomon will be no exception." -- p. 402: "Sandy conceded that industry practices that had seemed acceptable at the top of the bull market -- principally the erosion of the "Chinese wall" that was supposed to separate stock analysis from investment banking -- looked terrible in hindsight."

Subject

"Weill, Sandy."

"Shearson Lehman Brothers."

"Citigroup (Firm)"

"Bankers--United States--Biography."

"Stockbrokers--United States--Biography."

"Capitalists and financiers--United States--Biography."

"Financial services industry--United States."

"Consolidation and merger of corporations--United States--History."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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