Barbarians at the Gate By Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

Barbarians at the Gate By Bryan Burrough and John Helyar About Book The leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco in 1988 garnered the attention of the press, not only because at $25 billion it was the largest buyout in history up to that point, but the transaction was also surrounded by an unusual amount of drama and intrigue. In Barbarians at the Gate, Wall Street Journal reporters Bryan Burrough and John Helyar present a detailed history of the buyout proceedings, with inside information on many of the people and companies involved. In this guide, we’ve distilled the narrative into a concise chronology and covered the authors’ discussion of the mechanics of leveraged buyouts and junk bonds. Along the way, we’ll show how the events that Burrough and Helyar recount illustrate principles found in other books, ranging from The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing by Al Ries and Jack Trout to The Art of War by Sun Tzu.