Legendary Wall Street Investment Banker Bruce Wasserstein's Death Triggers $188M Payout

It'll take more than just death to stop legendary Wall Street Investment Banker Bruce Wasserstein from making money. The Lazard chief's death on Wednesday triggered the vesting of $188 million in stock options, swelling a fortune recently estimated at $2.2 billion and cementing his status as one of the highest-paid bankers in history. Wasserstein was ranked 147th on the latest Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans. Wasserstein—known in the financial world as "Bid 'Em Up Bruce"—was paid $20.8 million a year, millions more than the combined salaries of the four most senior Lazard execs beneath him, the Wall Street Journal notes.

Wasserstein had been a fixture on Wall Street since the 1980s. He worked on such landmark deals as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts' takeover of RJR Nabisco, and the Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter and AOL-Time Warner mergers. Aside from his work at Lazard, Wasserstein was chairman of Wasserstein & Co., a private investment firm. It has investments in companies ranging from Penton Media, a publisher of trade magazines, to gourmet food seller Harry & David. Wasserstein also owns New York Media Holdings LLC, which publishes New York magazine.

Bruce Wasserstein

An American Investment Banker and businessman. He was a graduate of the McBurney School, University of Michigan, Harvard Business School, and Harvard Law School, and spent a year at Cambridge University.

Wasserstein helped broker more than a thousand transactions worth $250 billion since the 1980s. Starting his career as a Cravath, Swaine & Moore attorney, he later rose to co-head of First Boston Corp.'s dominant merger and acquisition practice. He eventually formed investment bank boutique Wasserstein Perella & Co., which he sold in 2000, at the top of the 1990s bull market, to Germany's Dresdner Bank for around $1.4 billion in stock. He left the unit Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to take the job at Lazard Frères. In 2005, he completed the initial public offering for Lazard.

Wasserstein controlled Wasserstein & Co., a private equity firm with investments in a number of industries, particularly media. In 2004, he added New York Magazine to his media empire. In July 2007, he sold American Lawyer Media to Incisive Media for about $630 million in cash. He is credited with the term, Pac-Man defense, which is used by targeted companies during a hostile takeover attempt.

Enter your email address: