Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

A year after the 1987 stock market crash, Wall Street was still in recovery, with some 15,000 professionals having lost their jobs. Companies “began scanning the Street for investment opportunities” (187). Investment bankers in the late ‘70s and ‘80s were different from their predecessors, who had “forged decades-long friendships with their corporate clients” (187). The new bankers had no allegiances, “for every takeover produces a fee” (187). At the apex of this new food chain was “an elite clique of a dozen or so top dealmakers” in the mergers and acquisition field (187), known somewhat cryptically as “The Group.” They included Eric Gleacher of Morgan Stanley, Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone Group, and Allen Finkelston of Cravath Swaine & Moore. The Group’s leader was famous Wall Street lawyer Joseph Flom. The nature of The Group’s relationship “helped spawn the insider-trading scandals of the late eighties” (189).

When the Dow Jones News Service announced RJR Nabisco’s LBO plans, “All hell broke loose” (185). The company was flooded with hundreds of phone calls, and the media besieged the headquarters. RJR Nabisco stock jumped to $77.25 by the end of the day. All the major Wall Street players learned about RJR’s LBO at $75 per share.