Billion Dollar Lessons

By: Paul B. Caroll & Chunka Mui   

Pages: 332

Business

My recommendation: 8 / 10

Date read: 4th Apr'18

Brief review: The book is about mistakes made in the corporate world with respect to new launches, mergers and acquisitions and other activities which resulted in billion dollar losses. More than 70% of all mergers and acquisitions fail and destroy shareholders value. Still, they are considered 'cool' on the high street. CEOs with big egos and seeking to become icons for their big bold aggressive decisions regularly engage in activities which they think will put them in history, although they make little sense. Investment Managers who claim to be advisers promote such activities because they have a vested interest to earn a fat cheque out of it. The book gives a thorough account of several such failed instancess , eroding billions of dollars of value for investors. Many of such decisions looked flawed and foolish from the beginning but they were overruled by people at the top. The unfortunate part is that inspite of such history, the game is still on. If you are interested to know how some of these 'big marriages' miserably failed, read this book.