“Gingrich was on a Board of Advisors for Forstmann Little, an equity firm that did the same thing as Bain.”
Really? Didn’t Bain use “junk bonds”???
Nov 24, 2011
Emmett Tyrrell
Forstmann, the Big-Hearted Prodigy
http://townhall.com/columnists/emmetttyrrell/2011/11/24/forstmann,_the_big-hearted_prodigy/page/full/
WASHINGTON — On Sunday morning we lost a big-hearted prodigy: Teddy Forstmann, financier, political player, philanthropist (especially for the young and those in education) and a bit of an adventurer. I know — I accompanied him on some and feared for my life. He was a member of the Board of Directors of The American Spectator in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Teddy died of brain cancer, and we shall miss him.
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Teddy would not use junk bonds. That was, he would say, “funny money. It’s wampum.” Over lunch, he would try to explain it to me. He was famous for coining the phrase “barbarians at the gate.” It served as the title for Bryan Burrough and John Helyar’s best-seller about the $25 billion deal for RJR Nabisco, which Forstmann bid on but lost to private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts.
Teddy had an eye for “the deal” but was also extremely well-read, athletic and civilized. He was a conservative too. He donated millions to the Republican Party, though his real interest was in education and the young. He teamed up with John T. Walton, son of Walmart founder Sam Walton, and donated millions to the Children’s Scholarship Fund. He was an advocate of voucher programs and charter schools.
Teddy also had a sense of humor. He created a rivalry with Henry Kravis from the battle for RJR Nabisco. Teddy prided himself on using subordinated debt. KKR used junk debt. Teddy lost, but in “Barbarians at the Gate,” Burrough and Helyar testify that Teddy “fervently believed junk bonds had perverted not only the LBO industry but Wall Street itself.” .....
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barbarians at the gate was a great movie, i should buy the book, bet that is even better then the movie.