In May 1989, four years after he shocked Wall Street by buying the cosmetics company Revlon for $2.7 billion, Ronald Perelman, then 46, was named America's richest man by Institutional Investor. At the time, Perelman had a net worth estimated at $5 billion, derived from a decade of buying and selling all manner of companies, from a grocery store chain and a group of jewelry stores to a cigar manufacturer and an obscure maker of licorice extract. In achieving this pinnacle of success in American capitalism, Perelman surpassed Sam Walton, the founder of Walmart, who had long occupied the top spot. Perelman, the magazine proclaimed, was a "latter-day Midas."
In a way it was fitting that Perelman was the country's richest person at the end of the 1980s, a decade that celebrated greed and glory on Wall Street and in its various practitioners. The '80s gave us Michael Milken and the junk bond, Lew Ranieri and the securitization of car loan, mortgage, and credit card receivables, and a murderer's row, including Carl Icahn, Asher Edelman, and Saul Steinberg, of newly dubbed "corporate raiders." Towering above them all was Perelman, an unlikely-looking titan who shaved his head before it was fashionable and wore tight dress shirts before they were fashionable too, but who nonetheless had all the trappings of modern moguldom.
この記事は Town & Country US の September 2022 版に掲載されています。
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この記事は Town & Country US の September 2022 版に掲載されています。
7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、8,500 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。
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