This is actually the second autobiography of a founder with the surname Schwab that I review. After tire trader Les Schwab, this book is written by the founder and name giver Charles “Chuck” Schwab who founded the financial services company with the same name.
This is another book that I have been waiting for to read for some time. Jim Simons is maybe not a household name in investing, but his Renaissance Technology fund (Rentech) has clearly on of the best track record of any investment vehicle in recorded history. However, other than some other famous investors, Rentech was (and still is) so secretive that hardly anyone had a clue how he/they did it.
“Super Pumped”, written by NYT reporter Mike Isaac is a very recent book about Uber, the world’s first and biggest ride hailing company. The book covers Uber from the very beginning until the most recent events when founder Kalanick was forced out by investors and replaced by Expedia CEO Dara khosrowshahi.
The subtitel claims that the book explains” Venture Capital and How to get it”. It is written by Scott Kupor, “employee Nr. 1 ” of Andreesen Horrowitz (A16Z), one of the most famous newer VC firms in Silicon Valley (Sand Hill Road is a street in Silicon Valley where many famous VCs have their offices).
Merger Masters, written by Kate Welling and supported by Mario Gabelli is a book similar to Jack Schwagers “Market Wizards” series, portraying some famous investors.
In this case the focus is on investors who are active mostly in the Merger Arbitrage Business, Some guys are very well known like John Paulson, Paul Singer or guy Wyser-Pratte but from other guys, who keep a low profile, most invetsors might have never heard of.
Personally I wish this book would have been written long ago and that I head read it long ago. It really offeres a very comprehensive view into this relatively arcane world of arbitrage investing with some very suprising insights.
It is also clear that there is not ONE recipe to be successful as an Arb. For instance the question on when to sell when a deal breaks divides these guys into two groups: Some of them say the only way is to sell directly after the news whereas others say that you should never sell directly but wait for a better price. Other notable differences are levels of concentration, use of leverage and if hostile deals are part of the universe or not.
I was also surprised on the depth of fundamental analysis that most of these guys seem to be doing before entering into a deal, at least they claim to do so.
What makes the book really special and even better than the Market Wizard series is the fact that there is also space for the “other side”, CEOs who have fought the Arbs in hostile deals an ultimately won. Most interesting was the story about the take over attempt of Airgas by Air Products which is described in very good detail and how Airgas Managment ultimately won although the odds were highly against them.
The content is clearly US centric, however I think most of the mentioned rules etc. can be applied internationally.
Summary:
Overall, the book is extremely well written and offers a unique deep insight into the M&A arbitrage world. There is a lot of content in the book and I think I have to read it at least a second time to digest all of it.
Overall I can recommend the book highly to any investor, because sooner or later one will be involved in such a situation. For “special situation” investors this book is a MUST. For me clearly one of the best investment books that I have ever read.
Although I usually stay away from “self-improvement”” books, I bought the book as it has been recommended in a blog. In short, this is one of the best books I have read for a long time.
“Bad Blood” was one of the few books that I had actually preordered as I usually prefer more “seasoned” books.
I was not disappointed. “Bad Blood” is written by WSJ journalist John Carreyrou who also broke the initial story on Theranos, the once high-flying Silicon Valley Tech startup.
“When the wolves bite” is the story about Herbalife and the fight between Bill Ackman, the Activist Hedge Fund manager who publicly shorted the company and Acitivist legend Carl Icahn who became a large shareholder mainly in order to annoy Bill Ackman.
To be honest, I knew about Sam Zell and his real estate empire to some extent but I didn’t consider him as a great general (value) investor so far. This clearly changed after reading his “Memoirs”.
“Machine, Platform Crowd” tries to summarize what in the author’s view are the currently most important changes that will impact both, individuals and companies going forward:They call it the “Triple Revolution” consisting of:
value and opportunity 