Big deal : the battle for control of America's leading corporations / Bruce Wasserstein.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 793-798) and index.

1. The Battle for Paramount -- 2. History's Shadow -- 3. The Rise and Fall of the Conglomerate -- 4. The Deal Decade: Early Years -- 5. Troubled Years -- 6. The Merits of Mergers: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly -- 7. The Strategic Dilemma -- 8. The Energy Wars -- 9. Metamorphosis: Conglomerates Transformed -- 10. Financial Services in the Digital Age -- 11. The Telco Revolution -- 12. Racing Toward Cyberspace: The Media and the Message -- 13. The Tumultuous World of Health Care -- 14. A Guide to the Players -- 15. The Price -- 16. Structuring the Deal -- 17. Implementing the Deal -- 18. Offense: Battlefield Tactics -- 19. Defense: Fight or Sell? -- 20. Defense: Building the Battlements -- 21. Defense: Battlefield Tactics -- 22. The Government Intervenes.

In Big Deal, Bruce Wasserstein captures the evolution of modern deal-making - from the go-go conglomerate days of the 1960s and 1970s ... to the hostile takeover environment of the 1980s ... to the billion-dollar strategic corporate deals of the 1990s. He unveils the details of major transactions and portrays key individuals.

And he offers a front-row seat to the most famous takeover brawls of our time, providing a rare opportunity to watch Viacom, ITT, Time Warner, AT&T, IBM, and heavy hitters Henry Kravis, Ron Perelman, Barry Diller, and others in action.