Gerstner On Why Investment Bankers Are Bad

Say That Again

from the stay-away-from-them dept

Like any big time CEO Lou Gerstner apparently felt it was time to write a book about the secret of his success. The book, Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance?, apparently reveals a number of deals Gerstner decided not to make. He says they almost bought SAP, and also looked at buying Compaq, MCI, Nortel and others but decided against all of them. He points out that mergers usually fail, and apparently has a great dislike for investment bankers, saying that they try to make money by convincing companies to do expensive mergers, and then make even more money when they have to help spin off those same companies again a few years down the road. He claims that none of IBM’s acquisitions were brought to them by an investment banker.