Bruce Wasserstein Dead: Dies At 61

UPDATE: NEW YORK -- Bruce Wasserstein, the CEO of Lazard Ltd., is dead, a company spokeswoman confirms Wednesday .

Wasserstein, 61, a prominent Wall Street dealmaker, was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat on Sunday.

Wasserstein took over as head of Lazard in 2002. He took the company public in May 2005 and was named its CEO.

Lazard announced on Sunday that Wasserstein, 61, had been hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat. It called his condition "serious," but said he was "stable and recovering."

Lazard shares (LAZ) were halted before the close of trading Wednesday pending an announcement.

Wasserstein has been head of Lazard since 2002. He took the company public in May 2005 and was named CEO.

Wasserstein was in the middle of a contract that would keep him at the company through 2012.

Lazard has remained relatively strong throughout the economic downturn. Its second-quarter profits fell 18% to $28.2 million, or 34 cents per share, but easily surpassed expectations. New York-based Lazard's financial restructuring business has thrived during the downturn, offsetting declines in mergers and acquisitions advisory business.

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Merger activity is expected to pick up in the coming quarters as the economy and financial markets begin to recover. Lazard is currently serving as the financial adviser for Kraft Foods's unsolicited $16.7 billion takeover bid of British candy maker Cadbury.

Aside from his work at Lazard, Wasserstein served as chairman of Wasserstein & Co., a private investment firm. Wasserstein & Co. targets investments between $30 million and $150 million. It has investments in companies ranging from Penton Media, a publisher of trade magazines, to gourmet food seller Harry & David.

Wasserstein also owned New York Media Holdings, which publishes New York magazine.

He has been a fixture on Wall Street since the 1980s, when he helped run First Boston, before co-founding an investment bank, Wasserstein Perella Group, with Joseph Perella.

Wasserstein worked on such landmark deals as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts' takeover of RJR Nabisco in the late '80s, and the Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter and AOL-Time Warner mergers.

Wasserstein was CEO of Wasserstein Perella between 1988 and 2001 before selling it to Germany's Dresdner Bank for about $1.4 billion.

Forbes magazine estimated Wasserstein's net worth at $2 billion.

Wasserstein was the brother of Wendy Wasserstein, a Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who died in 2006.

Comments

[thewho77]

He'll become a good Democrat now after paying 700 million in estate taxes.

[Patriot86]

Well, well-now he has to deal with God...can't buy off God.

[thewho77]

He's faking his death to get out of paying taxes. His estate taxes will be only 35 percent, or 700 million

[nomoredead]

" If you have your health, you have everything. "

[american-dolt]

One down, _______ to go.

[Disdain]

Another warm and fuzzy liberal!

[american-dolt]

Independent here for last 35 years uninformed Right Wing Fool

[Stock market]

The wealth gap will widen to levels never before imagined while the middle class ceases. Our politicians need to do more to ensure equality.

good articles; http://bit.ly/1NkbAn

A person making 60,000 pays 20,000 of it in various taxes. A person making a million or more has a tax rate of 30% compared to 90% decades ago.

[Sam1234567]

If you are paying 20k in federal taxes off a 60k salary, you need a new accountant.

[NilesCrane]

well they say you never get out alive...but the rules of the game go, whoever has the most at the end wins....so i guess he wins.

[robinhood1]

I don't look at that way at all. He never even had a retirement, so I think he was the loser. This should be a wake up call to all those hard charging older baby boomers like Stephen Schwarzman, Elton John and Hilary Clinton, all born in 1947. Take time to smell the roses before you are buried under them. Hilary turns 62 this month. Happy birthday, Hilary.

[balancedsolution]

why isn't angelo mozillo in jail? anyone?

or why shouldn't he be forced to give up all his monies/ assets and give him a job for about $35,000 yr.

or better yet. cut his social security off.

this guy was a class act. great american business hero.

[abbienormal]

Some respect for the dead here. His sister Wendy was a brilliant artist and also died young. This is a sad day for the family.

[Ariel Gonzalez - Huffpost Blogger]

This whoop-whoo­p-whooping over a master of the universe's death is appalling. What evil did Wasserstein do, aside from make a lot of money? He adopted his orphaned niece, which says something about him as a brother, an uncle, and a man. I'm a proud liberal, and I don't mind waging class warfare, but some people should restrain their populist/socialist impulses and summon a little empathy.

[SaltySaltillo]

I am sorry for his family's loss. His death may make him a poster child for the work-life balance issue. Wasserstein was a very hard working man - worked harder than many of us can imagine. Perhaps he worked too hard?

[Peter Noble 2]

Of course it's sad for the family but his extreme wealth has made sure anyone who inherits will be part of the ruling class and their offspring unto the generations, until our country is totally owned by his offspring.
It's good to know that parasites also die young.

[FHTB]

Yes, sorry for his family's loss, but frankly, Wendy's loss was something I could much more relate to because she was an artist who did wonderful work...what this man did is fine if you enjoy that kind of thing...still, condolences to family.

[rcmfla]

Go figure? He looked fit as a fiddle!

[NeoconGal]

Now he's the richest guy in the cemetery. Good for him.

[leftbehind2000]

naw, the money likely got passed along to even less deserving offspring. the beat rolls on.

[RobinsonRoad]

I guess he didn't figure out how to take it with him

[JohnnyPDX]

Yep, you begin to think what his life was all about. Steal all that money for what? How much is enough? Funny I don't even feel sorry, I feel sad that his life was so wasted on the money thing.

[Disdain]

"Steal all that money for what?" I take it you have proof of that and will be posting it soon?

[Hollywooddeed]

All that money and he died anyway.

[vlm1948]

This announcement makes me ponder the rich man, camel, needle narrative in the Bible. Don't know much about this man whether he was a good person or not, still I am sure his family is grieving now and to them I offer my sincere sympathy.

[schatsie]

Just wondering if he had Swiss Bank Accounts and Cayman Island Accounts.

[NilesCrane]

my cousin works in the cayman islands for a very large bank, and she says people have been pulling their money out by the droves...the caymans arent the best place to hide money anymore..whether thats good or bad, I guess it only matters if you have millions to hide lol.

I also heard the swiss banks were being looked at closely by the US feds....so im guessing the new best place to hide money is probably china or if you really want to be creative, russia.