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John Helyar Books

1 book·~10 min total read

John Helyar is a journalist and author who has written for The Wall Street Journal and Fortune.

Known for: Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Books by John Helyar

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

finance·10 min read

A detailed account of the leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in the late 1980s, this book chronicles the intense corporate battle between Wall Street titans, investment bankers, and executives. It provides an inside look at the greed, ambition, and power struggles that defined one of the most famous business deals in American history.

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1

The Corporate Jungle of the 1980s

The 1980s were defined by an intoxicating mix of deregulation, easy credit, and intellectual bravado. Wall Street was fueled by new financial instruments, chief among them the leveraged buyout, or LBO. It was the brainchild of firms like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR), who saw debt not as a lia...

From Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

2

The Making of a Conglomerate: RJR Nabisco

R.J. Reynolds was founded on tobacco—on the smooth, steady profits of cigarettes that turned nicotine into empire. Nabisco, on the other hand, was built on sweetness: cookies, crackers, and snacks that filled millions of American pantries. When the two merged in 1985, the result was a sprawling cong...

From Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco

About John Helyar

John Helyar is a journalist and author who has written for The Wall Street Journal and Fortune.

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John Helyar is a journalist and author who has written for The Wall Street Journal and Fortune.

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