With wit, detail, and a keen feel for narrative, Can’t Take It With You takes readers inside the hectic days and nights of that first leveraged buyout and the others that followed. Along the way, he introduces a colorful cast of characters from Otto “the Rat Man” Orkin to Wayne Rollins, the dirt-poor Georgia farm boy who built a billion-dollar service company, and former Delaware Gov. Pierre “Pete” du Pont, the aristocrat who casually gave away several millions of Cullman’s money. Cullman’s story spans 40 years, deconstructing the art of the deal from a man who truly created an industry, but the book has its controversy. After decades of reaping the rewards brought by LBOs, Cullman was compelled to donate much of his fortune as he and his wife embraced the ideas of wealth sharing and social responsbility. But Cullman has serious reservations about private foundations, who is his view do not operate out of altruism a sentiment he shared in an article for the September 25, 2003, New York Review of Books where he argues that private foundations are often more interested in self-preservation and growing their assets than in making charitable donations. The book covers trends in both finance and philanthropy including: the art of leveraging a business deal, how LBOs became corrupted, how to apply principles of the LBO to philanthropy, and how private foundations could be reformed.
Book Details:
- Author: Lewis B. Cullman
- ISBN: 9780470323311
- Year Published: 2004
- Pages: 240
- BISAC: BUS027000, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS/Finance
About the Book and Topic:
With wit, detail, and a keen feel for narrative, Can’t Take It With You takes readers inside the hectic days and nights of that first leveraged buyout and the others that followed. Along the way, he introduces a colorful cast of characters from Otto “the Rat Man” Orkin to Wayne Rollins, the dirt-poor Georgia farm boy who built a billion-dollar service company, and former Delaware Gov. Pierre “Pete” du Pont, the aristocrat who casually gave away several millions of Cullman’s money. Cullman’s story spans 40 years, deconstructing the art of the deal from a man who truly created an industry, but the book has its controversy. After decades of reaping the rewards brought by LBOs, Cullman was compelled to donate much of his fortune as he and his wife embraced the ideas of wealth sharing and social responsbility. But Cullman has serious reservations about private foundations, who is his view do not operate out of altruism a sentiment he shared in an article for the September 25, 2003, New York Review of Books where he argues that private foundations are often more interested in self-preservation and growing their assets than in making charitable donations. The book covers trends in both finance and philanthropy including: the art of leveraging a business deal, how LBOs became corrupted, how to apply principles of the LBO to philanthropy, and how private foundations could be reformed.
Forty years ago, Lewis Cullman shocked Wall Street, introducing a financial model that went on to define modern business. With a $1000 investment, Cullman engineered the $62.5 million purchase of Orkin Exterminating Co. Back then, he called it a bootstrap operation. We know the process today as a leveraged buyout the famous or infamous LBO that would change the history of modern finance. Now, at age 84, Cullman is applying the same principles that helped him amass hundreds of millions of dollars to what he calls “the far harder business” of giving away his money effectively given the flaws he believes exists among private foundations.
Chronicles the remarkable life of Lewis Cullman and birth of the LBO a staple of modern finance. Expansive: A witty and personal narrative brings to life the Cullman clan who became a tobacco dynasty, and Lewis the only son to abandon the family business and strike out on his own. With a $1000 investment, Cullman engineered the $62.5-million purchase of Orkin Exterminating. Instructive and Controversial: Cullman describes how the principles of LBO can be applied to other areas, including philanthropy. He presents a powerful argument that private foundations are often more interested in self-preservation and growing their assets than in making charitable donations, and recommends a path towards reform.
About the Author
Lewis Cullman is the Chairman of Cullman Ventures Inc. He originated the LBO in 1963 with the leveraged buyout of Orkin Exterminators, and continued to amass a fortune via LBOs that culminated in the creation of the nation’s largest printer of commercial calendars, Keith-Clark who produced nearly 90 percent of all calendars sold in America. He then sold the company to Mead in 1998. Cullman is also one of New York’s most generous and dedicated benefactors of the arts, entertainment, and education.