Jon Huntsman Sr., author of Cheaters Never Win, has taken on Leon Black, a man who revels in the title, "the greediest man on Wall Street." Black's Apollo Management backed out of a $10.6 billion deal to buy Huntsman Corp., which among other things jeopardized cancer research at the Huntsman Institute.A livid Huntsman says Black's welshing on the deal amounts to fraud:
Leon Black is a man who thinks he doesn't have to play by the rules. Up to now he has gotten away with doing just as he pleases. Well, I will not tolerate unethical conduct. Our suit is designed to show him that in this case, he can't act that way and get away with it.
It's shaping into a hell of a story—white hats vs. black hats. King Kong v. that Big Dinosaur. Gog v. Magog.
Black seems unfazed. Walking away from deals might make it harder to get other companies to sign on the dotted line, but with $4 billion and a rough reputation on Wall Street, Black has always been indifferent to appearances and revels in being known as one of the greediest men in the money business. He and Huntsman have been tangling for years.
At a recent "corporate night" at Caroline's Comedy Club in New York, billionaire Carl Icahn told an anecdote about Leon Black's attempt to shakedown U.S. Steel chief, David Roderick, a former Marine. Roderick told Icahn, "If you don't get that guy out of here in 30 seconds, I'll slice his balls off." You can watch Icahn's shtick below, the anecdote is at the end, about five minutes in.
1 Comments:
When has Leon Black "revelled in being the greediest man on Wall Street." He has probably never made any comment like that. The media is sensationalizing him, making it a Wall Street vs. Main Street story. The Huntsmans are probably not innocents or saints. Their company's real value has declined very substantially, and now the shareholders are the only ones who want the deal to go through. Huntsman took Black's deal over the Basell offer that it had accepted even though Black had reneged on them several times before. They have no grounds to be outraged or surprised.
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