Word: milken
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...Milken's junk bonds remained innocuous until the mid-'80s, when he began using the securities to raise mountains of money for hostile takeovers. In fact, the preferred opening salvo of corporate raiders became the dreaded letter from Drexel in which the firm stated it was "highly confident" of coming up with the necessary cash. In some cases, like T. Boone Pickens' failed bid in 1984 for Gulf Oil, Drexel charged a hefty fee for lining up money that it never had to deliver. But in many other raids, including Ronald Perelman's 1985 takeover of Revlon, Milken raised billions...
...Milken's junk-bond department, which he moved from Manhattan to Beverly Hills not long after he formed it a decade ago, quickly became the engine of the Wall Street firm's furious growth. One reason is that junk bonds earn hefty fees: Drexel charges 3% to 4% of an offering's total value, compared with a fee of less than 1% for a higher-grade issue. Milken's web of buyers and sellers for the bonds has given him a virtual lock on the market, though the entry of such competitors as Morgan Stanley and First Boston has whittled...
...Though Milken's title is only senior executive vice president, he has set Drexel's tone and direction during the past decade, according to many who deal with the firm. But his yen for control and lack of regard for convention, which served him so well in staking out his new financial realm, may have been what led him to allegedly illegal tactics. Says journalist Connie Bruck, author of the 1988 book on Drexel titled The Predator's Ball: "For years he's been a law unto himself. He has disdain for the way the world works. He figures...
...Milken now spends nearly a third of his time working on his legal defense but otherwise maintains his characteristic workaholic schedule. After arriving at his office at 9560 Wilshire Boulevard by 4:30 a.m. each day in a chauffeur- driven Mercedes, Milken holds forth in a trading room the size of a basketball court. He has no private office, preferring to sit at one of three huge, X- shaped desks, where 30 bond traders and other workers shout into telephones and scramble to execute the orders that he barks out or scrawls on yellow legal pads. On the computer terminal...
...barrage of negative publicity during the past two years, starting when the Boesky case broke in 1986, has been tough on Milken's family. "The Michael Milken portrayed in the press is not the man I know and live with," said his wife Lori. Milken and Lori, who was his high school sweetheart, live quietly with their three children (Greg, 15, Lance, 12, Bari, 7) in Encino. Their five-bedroom house, which might sell for $3 million, was once occupied by Clark Gable and Carole Lombard. It is a suburban idyll trimmed by red and white Impatiens, finished inside with...