The last tycoons: the secret history of Lazard Frères & Co (137 page)

"I said to Michel": Interview with Verey, May 31, 2005.

"Look, I know I've always wanted": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"You each supported my appointment": WL memorandum, "Our Future Course," October 24, 2000.

"I remain chairman":
Euromoney,
January 2001.

"It would not be abnormal": Ibid.

"cutting off Loomis at the knees":
Euromoney,
November 2001.

"We've been through a period of turmoil":
BusinessWeek,
November 27,2000.

"The mood was ghastly":
WSJ,
November 13, 2002.

"We are the independent and private": WL memorandum to the executive committee, October 24, 2000; WL speech, November 2000; and
Institutional Investor,
December 2000.

"If we were to sell":
BusinessWeek,
November 27, 2000.

"The price was obscene": "Dressing Up Lazard,"
Bloomberg Magazine,
February 2003.

"Bollore caused just a huge distraction": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"It's all about IQ": Rich Karlgaard, "Microsoft's IQ Dividend,"
WSJ,
July 28,2004.

"The crux for all investment banks":
Economist,
November 30, 2000.

"The machinery, the culture": AE, December 10, 2000.

"After an outstanding year": AE, December 22, 2000.

Chapter 18: "Lazard May Go Down Like the
Titanic!"

"That was the beginning": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Within weeks, Michel was undermining": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Bill actually had come in on": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"He was told by them": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"I mean, people thought that it": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Richard has been a gifted banker": Article/press release on Microsoft.com, November 30, 2000.

"But basically, Bill insisted": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Now, you have to remember": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"All of us also knew": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Everybody in Europe wanted more points": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Bill, on this first working day of 2001": MDW to WL, January 2, 2001.

"has $50 million too much expense": AE, January 13, 2001.

"some sort of gesture": Ibid.

"This would be a fine start": Ibid.

"Michel, with whom Bill had discussed": Ibid.

"our usual very frank conversation"; Ibid.

"We will either work": Ibid.

"It is interesting to consider why": Ibid.

"to hold the firm together": Ibid.

"Loomis played an interesting, watchful game": AE, January 20, 2001.

"deeply and unusually depressed": AE, February 1, 2001.

"yet another threat to quit": Ibid.

"big cuts" in New York: Ibid.

"In a nutshell": Ibid.

"equity scheme": Ibid.

"a rather excited voice": Ibid.

"chasing abortive schemes": Ibid.

"Bill appeared to lose his temper": Ibid.

"There will be trouble ahead": Ibid.

"three hours to chew on": Ibid.

"pretty bizarre scheme": Ibid.

"Bill's behaviour is quite against the grain": Ibid.

The account of Verey's mood: Ibid.

"He simply could not face": Ibid.

"unacceptable": AE, February 4,2001.

follow-up meeting: Interview with Lazard partners.

Verey sent a letter: AE, February 4,2001.

"received the impression": AE, February 22, 2001.

"Our name in the world is excellent": MDW speech at February 20, 2001, executive committee meeting; speech dated February 12, 2001.

"commitment fest": AE, February 22, 2001.

"Michel made it clear": Ibid.

"could impact the timing": Ibid.

"good book about what I have seen":
NYT,
January 23, 2001.

"I decided that I couldn't go back":
Institutional Investor,
May 2001.

"No, you know I can't do this": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.

released him from a provision: Ibid.

"Well, we can't do that": AE, February 22, 2001.

"extraordinary exercise": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.

"I could go to court": Ibid.

"If they voted to release you": Ibid.

Two points were communicated: AE, February 22, 2001.

"Another bizarre affair": Ibid.

"The idea was that Lazard could use": Interview with FGR, January 3, 2005.

"So Felix is back": Lazard chat room on Vault.com, April 26, 2001.

"Isn't Felix in his early 70s?": Ibid., April 27, 2001.

"Even with his return": Ibid., April 27, 2001.

"I think bringing Felix back": Ibid., April 27, 2001.

"Seems like Felix is": Ibid., May 10,2001.

"Felix is truly the best": Richard Emerson on Vault.com, June 21, 2001.

"We see the writing on the wall": Lazard chat room on Vault.com, March 15, 2001.

"Due to the fact that MDW": Ibid., March 16, 2001.

"In the next two weeks": Ibid., March 17, 2001.

"There are rumors of layoffs": Ibid., March 19, 2001.

"First of all": Ibid., March 20, 2001.

"Lazard's reputation": Ibid., March 31, 2001.

"Imagine being in the middle": Ibid., March 31, 2001.

"I got a call from Bill Loomis": Ibid., April 2, 2001.

"It is shit": Ibid., April 1, 2001.

"Everyone at the firm knows it": Ibid.

"First, you had this level of expectations": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"By March, he was saying": Interview with a Lazard partner.

Project S: AE; and interviews with Lazard partners.

"The day we go public one way or another": AE, around February 22, 2001 (undated entry).

"Who owns Lazard": AE, March 18,2001.

"shabbily dealt with": Ibid.

"If Loomis goes ahead": Ibid.

"cope with the 'rumours'": AE, April 24, 2001.

"it had been a rotten day": Ibid.

"on a friendly basis": Ibid.

"honorably consider alternatives": Ibid.

"The difficulty I had with David": Interview with MDW, January 31, 2005.

"My first loyalty is to Michel David-Weill": Interview with David Verey, May 31, 2005.

"very touched by that": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.

"Your essential qualities": Bruno Roger to Adrian Evans, May 11, 2001.

"He lost control of the situation completely": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"We need to have more vibrant incentives": WL speech, May 25, 2001.

"A house divided against itself": E-mail correspondence between WL and Adrian Evans, June 26, 2001.

Michel had three messages for him: E-mail correspondence between WL and Adrian Evans, July 6, 2001.

"With that, I went to bed": Ibid.

"if others wish to put themselves": Ibid.

"Perhaps it was an illusion": AE, July 12, 2001.

"both publicly and privately": Ibid.

"we have to work together": Ibid.

"EAT BEFORE READING": Adrian Evans e-mail, July 20, 2001.

"This will be colorful, if 'disturbing'": Ibid.

"$70 million is unlikely to be": Lazard partner e-mail, July 21, 2001.

"lecture on Paris' feeling of isolation": Evans e-mail, July 21, 2001.

"When you say to partners": Interview with Bruno Roger.

"To imagine Michel becoming involved": Evans e-mail, July 21, 2001.

"We need to be honest in our assessment": WL to MDW, July 23, 2001.

"And that was the
only
future": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"I would say that I started": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"ridiculous to float or sell now": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"We might prefer restructuring": Ibid.

"So nothing will happen": Ibid.

"You suggest that we 'fire' Tom": WL e-mail to MDW, July 31, 2001.

"angry, quarrelsome" one: AE, August 2, 2001.

"The guy was the manager": Interview with MDW, December 1, 2004.

"I think he was losing confidence": Ibid.

Summer 2001 efforts to hire Bruce Wasserstein: Interviews with MDW, FGR, WL, and a spokesman for BW.

"unproductive and highly dangerous": AE, August 29, 2001.

"we speak with them all the time": Ibid.

Two meetings in Biarritz: Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.

"they are dying to do something": AE, August 29, 2001.

"Personally, I am not against it": Ibid.

"were all the same": Ibid.

"You would be bribed to stay": Ibid.

"I would not work hard": Ibid.

"There was my knowledge": Interview with MDW, December 1, 2004.

"I mean, even though they went to talk": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Felix would've done it": Ibid.

"It's unclear how far the Lehman discussions got": Interview with Ken Wilson, January 18, 2005.

"with pleasure": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.

discussions between the two firms: Interviews with Lazard bankers; and
WSJ,
November 7, 2001.

two-paragraph agreement: Interviews with MDW and WL.

"Because I am an eternal optimist": Interview with MDW, September 15,2004.

"I spent the rest of the day": Vernon Jordan sermon to the First Congregational Church in Atlanta, September 23, 2001.

"The curious thing with me": Interview with MDW, September 15, 2004.

"I was not totally against a deal with Lehman": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.

"Look, you know I never participated": Ibid.

"There are five of us stuck here" and story of partners flying back to the United States in MDW's jet; Interview with a Lazard partner.

"I have long been concerned and articulate": WL e-mail to Adrian Evans, September 23, 2001.

"joking" and "happy": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Very interesting, very odd, very puzzling": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Fundamentally, if you shut down Capital Markets": AE, October 16, 2001.

"menacing monotone" and "To be perfectly frank": Ibid.

"Every time we have this discussion": Ibid.

he fired Tashjian: Interviews with Lazard partners.

"Gratuitous violence": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"a watershed event": Interview with MDW, December 1, 2004.

"In a partnership": Ibid.

"I reached the conclusion": Interview with WL, June 30, 2005.

"At that point I knew": Interview with Ken Jacobs, October 27, 2004.

"So here I am in a situation": Interview with WL, June 30, 2005; and WL e-mail to Scott Hoffman, October 21,2001.

"His advice was to hold on": Interview with WL, June 30, 2005.

"Maybe you were once a banker": Ibid.

"This was an impossible situation": Ibid.

"I thought about it on Sunday": Ibid.

"Otherwise, I just get tarred": Ibid.; and WL e-mail, October 20, 2001.

"goes far enough in NYC": Marcus Agius e-mail to WL, October 22, 2001.

"I must also tell you": Interview with WL, June 30, 2005.

"You are a great partner": WL e-mail to Adrian Evans, October 23, 2001.

"work with clients and focus": Lazard press release, October 24, 2001; and
WSJ,
October 25, 2001.

"If Michel had to offer them the olive branch":
Daily Deal,
October 24,2001.

"He was so much in David-Weill's shadow":
Euromoney,
November 2001.

"People don't have a long time": Interview with MDW, December 1, 2004.

"was a catastrophe": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Turning back the clock": Interview with MDW, September 15, 2004.

"never been able to keep":
Bloomberg,
October 24, 2001.

"the high-profile departures": "Men Overboard,"
Economist,
November 3,2001.

"A change is required": AE, November 8, 2001.

"basically whatever we want": Ibid.

"He argued that he increases": Ibid.

"Is this better or worse": Ibid.

"The deal is on": Ibid.

"Well, I've got to say": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.

sold his eponymous firm: Numerous press reports.

"That's utter baloney": Vicky Ward, "Lazard's Clash of the Titans,"
Vanity Fair,
April 2005.

"It's classic Bruce": Interview with a former Wasserstein Perella partner.

"he should be free to leave":
WSJ,
November 15, 2001.

"old news": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"unfinished business": Interview with SR, September 14, 2001.

"Before Bruce ever got into a discussion": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"Who would take this job?":
BusinessWeek,
November 12, 2001.

WL call to Fuld: Interview with WL; and WL letter to Fuld, November 8,2001.

"Dear Lenny":
WSJ
, November 15,2001.

"After 25 years of stewardship": MDW memorandum/press release, November 15, 2001.

"I am delighted to join Lazard:" Ibid.

"To take a firm with potential": BW on
The Charlie Rose Show,
January 4,2006.

"great firm," "intergenerational transition," "Classic small business problem": Ibid.

"It was obviously a deal": Interview with a Lazard partner.

"One of the most interesting things": Bruce Wasserstein,
Big Deal
(New York: Warner Books, 1998), and
Harvard Business School Bulletin,
October 1996.

"Well, I had two thoughts, not reactions": Interview with MDW, November 30, 2005.

nothing short of
suicidal:
Interviews with Francois Voss (January 31, 2005) and other Lazard partners.

"I knew the accounts of the Wasserstein firm": Interview with MDW, January 12, 2005.

"It is very difficult to manage a private firm": Interview with MDW, September 15, 2004.

"Both are considered brilliant bankers":
WSJ,
November 16, 2001.

joint telephone interview: Ibid.

"People should worry about customers":
Financial Times,
November 16,2001.