Author: Owen Walker
Publisher: Pearson UK
ISBN: 1292114002
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
Barbarians in the Boardroom
Author: Owen Walker
Publisher: Pearson UK
ISBN: 1292114002
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
Publisher: Pearson UK
ISBN: 1292114002
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265
Book Description
Barbarians in the Boardroom
Author: Owen Walker
Publisher: Pearson UK
ISBN: 1292114010
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Activist investors have sent shockwaves through corporations in recent years, personally targeting directors and executives at some of the world’s largest companies. No longer satisfied with operating on the fringes of business, they are now a firm fixture in the boardroom. Up to a quarter of public companies could be targeted by activist campaigns in the coming years, with directors and executives at those corporations threatened with losing their jobs. The trend, which began in corporate America, has spread to the UK, Europe and Asia, taking in several high profile companies. Barbarians in the Boardroom tells a compelling story of boardroom bust ups, dumped CEOs triumphant activists and pared back companies. It reveals real-life examples and interviews with executives and investors to explain why and how activist investors have managed to storm Wall Street and tear down City citadels. Owen Walker provides an insight into the way activists think, how they decide to target a company and how directors and executives could possibly work with them rather than against them. The full text downloaded to your computer With eBooks you can: search for key concepts, words and phrases make highlights and notes as you study share your notes with friends eBooks are downloaded to your computer and accessible either offline through the Bookshelf (available as a free download), available online and also via the iPad and Android apps. Upon purchase, you'll gain instant access to this eBook. Time limit The eBooks products do not have an expiry date. You will continue to access your digital ebook products whilst you have your Bookshelf installed.
Publisher: Pearson UK
ISBN: 1292114010
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 287
Book Description
Activist investors have sent shockwaves through corporations in recent years, personally targeting directors and executives at some of the world’s largest companies. No longer satisfied with operating on the fringes of business, they are now a firm fixture in the boardroom. Up to a quarter of public companies could be targeted by activist campaigns in the coming years, with directors and executives at those corporations threatened with losing their jobs. The trend, which began in corporate America, has spread to the UK, Europe and Asia, taking in several high profile companies. Barbarians in the Boardroom tells a compelling story of boardroom bust ups, dumped CEOs triumphant activists and pared back companies. It reveals real-life examples and interviews with executives and investors to explain why and how activist investors have managed to storm Wall Street and tear down City citadels. Owen Walker provides an insight into the way activists think, how they decide to target a company and how directors and executives could possibly work with them rather than against them. The full text downloaded to your computer With eBooks you can: search for key concepts, words and phrases make highlights and notes as you study share your notes with friends eBooks are downloaded to your computer and accessible either offline through the Bookshelf (available as a free download), available online and also via the iPad and Android apps. Upon purchase, you'll gain instant access to this eBook. Time limit The eBooks products do not have an expiry date. You will continue to access your digital ebook products whilst you have your Bookshelf installed.
Barbarians at the Gate
Author: Bryan Burrough
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061804037
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
#1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco at the hands of a buyout from investment firm KKR. A book that stormed both the bestseller list and the public imagination, a book that created a genre of its own, and a book that gets at the heart of Wall Street and the '80s culture it helped define, Barbarians at the Gate is a modern classic—a masterpiece of investigatory journalism and a rollicking book of corporate derring-do and financial swordsmanship. The fight to control RJR Nabisco during October and November of 1988 was more than just the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Marked by brazen displays of ego not seen in American business for decades, it became the high point of a new gilded age and its repercussions are still being felt. The tale remains the ultimate story of greed and glory—a story and a cast of characters that determined the course of global business and redefined how deals would be done and fortunes made in the decades to come. Barbarians at the Gate is the gripping account of these two frenzied months, of deal makers and publicity flaks, of an old-line industrial powerhouse (home of such familiar products a Oreos and Camels) that became the victim of the ruthless and rapacious style of finance in the 1980s. As reporters for The Wall Street Journal, Burrough and Helyar had extensive access to all the characters in this drama. They take the reader behind the scenes at strategy meetings and society dinners, into boardrooms and bedrooms, providing an unprecedentedly detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era. At the center of the huge power struggle is RJR Nabisco's president, the high-living Ross Johnson. It's his secret plan to buy out the company that sets the frenzy in motion, attracting the country's leading takeover players: Henry Kravis, the legendary leveraged-buyout king of investment firm KKR, whose entry into the fray sets off an acquisitive commotion; Peter Cohen, CEO of Shearson Lehman Hutton and Johnson's partner, who needs a victory to propel his company to an unchallenged leadership in the lucrative mergers and acquisitions field; the fiercely independent Ted Forstmann, motivated as much by honor as by his rage at the corruption he sees taking over the business he cherishes; Jim Maher and his ragtag team, struggling to regain credibility for the decimated ranks at First Boston; and an army of desperate bankers, lawyers, and accountants, all drawn inexorably to the greatest prize of their careers—and one of the greatest prizes in the history of American business. Written with the bravado of a novel and researched with the diligence of a sweeping cultural history, Barbarians at the Gate is present at the front line of every battle of the campaign. Here is the unforgettable story of that takeover in all its brutality. In a new afterword specially commissioned for the story's 20th anniversary, Burrough and Helyar return to visit the heroes and villains of this epic story, tracing the fallout of the deal, charting the subsequent success and failure of those involved, and addressing the incredible impact this story—and the book itself—made on the world.
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0061804037
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 596
Book Description
#1 New York Times bestseller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco at the hands of a buyout from investment firm KKR. A book that stormed both the bestseller list and the public imagination, a book that created a genre of its own, and a book that gets at the heart of Wall Street and the '80s culture it helped define, Barbarians at the Gate is a modern classic—a masterpiece of investigatory journalism and a rollicking book of corporate derring-do and financial swordsmanship. The fight to control RJR Nabisco during October and November of 1988 was more than just the largest takeover in Wall Street history. Marked by brazen displays of ego not seen in American business for decades, it became the high point of a new gilded age and its repercussions are still being felt. The tale remains the ultimate story of greed and glory—a story and a cast of characters that determined the course of global business and redefined how deals would be done and fortunes made in the decades to come. Barbarians at the Gate is the gripping account of these two frenzied months, of deal makers and publicity flaks, of an old-line industrial powerhouse (home of such familiar products a Oreos and Camels) that became the victim of the ruthless and rapacious style of finance in the 1980s. As reporters for The Wall Street Journal, Burrough and Helyar had extensive access to all the characters in this drama. They take the reader behind the scenes at strategy meetings and society dinners, into boardrooms and bedrooms, providing an unprecedentedly detailed look at how financial operations at the highest levels are conducted but also a richly textured social history of wealth at the twilight of the Reagan era. At the center of the huge power struggle is RJR Nabisco's president, the high-living Ross Johnson. It's his secret plan to buy out the company that sets the frenzy in motion, attracting the country's leading takeover players: Henry Kravis, the legendary leveraged-buyout king of investment firm KKR, whose entry into the fray sets off an acquisitive commotion; Peter Cohen, CEO of Shearson Lehman Hutton and Johnson's partner, who needs a victory to propel his company to an unchallenged leadership in the lucrative mergers and acquisitions field; the fiercely independent Ted Forstmann, motivated as much by honor as by his rage at the corruption he sees taking over the business he cherishes; Jim Maher and his ragtag team, struggling to regain credibility for the decimated ranks at First Boston; and an army of desperate bankers, lawyers, and accountants, all drawn inexorably to the greatest prize of their careers—and one of the greatest prizes in the history of American business. Written with the bravado of a novel and researched with the diligence of a sweeping cultural history, Barbarians at the Gate is present at the front line of every battle of the campaign. Here is the unforgettable story of that takeover in all its brutality. In a new afterword specially commissioned for the story's 20th anniversary, Burrough and Helyar return to visit the heroes and villains of this epic story, tracing the fallout of the deal, charting the subsequent success and failure of those involved, and addressing the incredible impact this story—and the book itself—made on the world.
Dear Chairman
Author: Jeff Gramm
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062369849
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
A sharp and illuminating history of one of capitalism’s longest running tensions—the conflicts of interest among public company directors, managers, and shareholders—told through entertaining case studies and original letters from some of our most legendary and controversial investors and activists. Recent disputes between shareholders and major corporations, including Apple and DuPont, have made headlines. But the struggle between management and those who own stock has been going on for nearly a century. Mixing never-before-published and rare, original letters from Wall Street icons—including Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Ross Perot, Carl Icahn, and Daniel Loeb—with masterful scholarship and professional insight, Dear Chairman traces the rise in shareholder activism from the 1920s to today, and provides an invaluable and unprecedented perspective on what it means to be a public company, including how they work and who is really in control. Jeff Gramm analyzes different eras and pivotal boardroom battles from the last century to understand the factors that have caused shareholders and management to collide. Throughout, he uses the letters to show how investors interact with directors and managers, how they think about their target companies, and how they plan to profit. Each is a fascinating example of capitalism at work told through the voices of its most colorful, influential participants. A hedge fund manager and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, Gramm has spent as much time evaluating CEOs and directors as he has trying to understand and value businesses. He has seen public companies that are poorly run, and some that willfully disenfranchise their shareholders. While he pays tribute to the ingenuity of public company investors, Gramm also exposes examples of shareholder activism at its very worst, when hedge funds engineer stealthy land-grabs at the expense of a company’s long term prospects. Ultimately, he provides a thorough, much-needed understanding of the public company/shareholder relationship for investors, managers, and everyone concerned with the future of capitalism.
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062369849
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 263
Book Description
A sharp and illuminating history of one of capitalism’s longest running tensions—the conflicts of interest among public company directors, managers, and shareholders—told through entertaining case studies and original letters from some of our most legendary and controversial investors and activists. Recent disputes between shareholders and major corporations, including Apple and DuPont, have made headlines. But the struggle between management and those who own stock has been going on for nearly a century. Mixing never-before-published and rare, original letters from Wall Street icons—including Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Ross Perot, Carl Icahn, and Daniel Loeb—with masterful scholarship and professional insight, Dear Chairman traces the rise in shareholder activism from the 1920s to today, and provides an invaluable and unprecedented perspective on what it means to be a public company, including how they work and who is really in control. Jeff Gramm analyzes different eras and pivotal boardroom battles from the last century to understand the factors that have caused shareholders and management to collide. Throughout, he uses the letters to show how investors interact with directors and managers, how they think about their target companies, and how they plan to profit. Each is a fascinating example of capitalism at work told through the voices of its most colorful, influential participants. A hedge fund manager and an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, Gramm has spent as much time evaluating CEOs and directors as he has trying to understand and value businesses. He has seen public companies that are poorly run, and some that willfully disenfranchise their shareholders. While he pays tribute to the ingenuity of public company investors, Gramm also exposes examples of shareholder activism at its very worst, when hedge funds engineer stealthy land-grabs at the expense of a company’s long term prospects. Ultimately, he provides a thorough, much-needed understanding of the public company/shareholder relationship for investors, managers, and everyone concerned with the future of capitalism.
Built on a Lie
Author: Owen Walker
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241468221
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
He was the most celebrated and successful British investor of his generation - but it was all built on a lie. Neil Woodford spent years beating the market; betting against the dot com bubble and the banks before the financial crash in 2008, making blockbuster returns for investors and earning himself a reputation of 'the man who made Middle England rich'. But, in 2019, Woodford's asset management company collapsed, trapping hundreds of thousands of rainy-day savers in his flagship fund and hanging £3.6 billion in the balance. In Built on a Lie, Financial Times reporter Owen Walker reveals the disastrous failings of Woodford, the greed at the heart of his operation and the full, jaw-dropping story of Europe's biggest investment scandal in a decade. 'Vital financial journalism with heart' Emma Barnett, broadcaster 'This is a must read!' Vince Cable, former leader of the Liberal Democrats 'Reads like a rip roaring tale of a corporate high wire act' John McDonnell, former Shadow Chancellor 'Should be sold with a bottle of blood-pressure pills' Edward Lucas, The Time
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0241468221
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 246
Book Description
He was the most celebrated and successful British investor of his generation - but it was all built on a lie. Neil Woodford spent years beating the market; betting against the dot com bubble and the banks before the financial crash in 2008, making blockbuster returns for investors and earning himself a reputation of 'the man who made Middle England rich'. But, in 2019, Woodford's asset management company collapsed, trapping hundreds of thousands of rainy-day savers in his flagship fund and hanging £3.6 billion in the balance. In Built on a Lie, Financial Times reporter Owen Walker reveals the disastrous failings of Woodford, the greed at the heart of his operation and the full, jaw-dropping story of Europe's biggest investment scandal in a decade. 'Vital financial journalism with heart' Emma Barnett, broadcaster 'This is a must read!' Vince Cable, former leader of the Liberal Democrats 'Reads like a rip roaring tale of a corporate high wire act' John McDonnell, former Shadow Chancellor 'Should be sold with a bottle of blood-pressure pills' Edward Lucas, The Time
Seeking Virtue in Finance
Author: JC de Swaan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110847313X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
By learning from inspiring individuals in the industry, finance professionals can pursue viable careers while benefiting society and upholding humanistic values.
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 110847313X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 249
Book Description
By learning from inspiring individuals in the industry, finance professionals can pursue viable careers while benefiting society and upholding humanistic values.
Exposure
Author: Michael Woodford
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591846889
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
When Michael Woodford was made president of Olympus, he became the first Westerner ever to climb to the top of one of Japan’s corporate giants. Unfortunately, soon after, his dream job turned into a nightmare. Woodford learned about a series of bizarre mergers and acquisitions deals totaling $1.7 billion—a scandal that threatened to bring down the entire company if exposed. Just weeks later, he was fired in a boardroom coup that shocked Japan and the business world. Woodford fled the country in fear for his life and went straight to the press—making him the first CEO of a global multinational to blow the whistle on his own company. Now Woodford recounts his almost unbelievable true story and paints a devastating portrait of corporate Japan. “His story is filled with mystery, suspense, and betrayal.” —Management Today “A gripping chronicle.” —Kirkus Reviews “I had walked into a John Grisham novel.” —Michael Woodford
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1591846889
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 273
Book Description
When Michael Woodford was made president of Olympus, he became the first Westerner ever to climb to the top of one of Japan’s corporate giants. Unfortunately, soon after, his dream job turned into a nightmare. Woodford learned about a series of bizarre mergers and acquisitions deals totaling $1.7 billion—a scandal that threatened to bring down the entire company if exposed. Just weeks later, he was fired in a boardroom coup that shocked Japan and the business world. Woodford fled the country in fear for his life and went straight to the press—making him the first CEO of a global multinational to blow the whistle on his own company. Now Woodford recounts his almost unbelievable true story and paints a devastating portrait of corporate Japan. “His story is filled with mystery, suspense, and betrayal.” —Management Today “A gripping chronicle.” —Kirkus Reviews “I had walked into a John Grisham novel.” —Michael Woodford
Advanced Corporate Finance
Author: KRISHNAMURTI CHANDRASEKHAR
Publisher: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN: 8120336119
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 397
Book Description
Primarily intended as a text for postgraduate students of management and those pursuing postgraduate courses in finance, this study explains corporate finance as an area of finance dealing with the financial decisions corporations make and the tools and analyses used to make these decisions.
Publisher: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd.
ISBN: 8120336119
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 397
Book Description
Primarily intended as a text for postgraduate students of management and those pursuing postgraduate courses in finance, this study explains corporate finance as an area of finance dealing with the financial decisions corporations make and the tools and analyses used to make these decisions.
The Governance Revolution
Author: Deborah Hicks Midanek
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1547400382
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
Boards of directors are sitting ducks. Shareholders complain and even attack, management manipulates, and individual board members have little power, able to act only as part of the board as a whole. Governance issues are front and center, yet there is often little understanding, even among board members, of the key role that they play. Written in an accessible and human voice, The Governance Revolution: What Every Board Member Needs to Know, NOW! provides information and context essential to anyone seeking to understand how corporations and their stewards—the board of directors—can and should function in the volatile world we inhabit. Deborah Hicks Midanek offers useful insight into what board members of corporations actually do, the current standards for board members and why they exist. She includes a timely discussion of how clarity of purpose can improve board and director effectiveness. Informed by her long experience serving public, private, and family owned corporate boards as well as those of charitable, and government organizations, she provides essential context regarding the evolution of board practice as well as candid discussion of the issues involved in the relentless effort to improve corporate governance processes. Focused mainly on the dominant public corporation, she also explores the special challenges of serving private and family owned as well as nonprofit and public agency boards. Written by a seasoned board member, and liberally laced with stories and cases illustrating the tricky issues directors wrestle with, this book is the essential common-sense companion for anyone working with a board, serving on a board, or wanting to do so. Directors, aspiring directors, investors, and students of corporate behavior will benefit from this highly readable description of the cloistered boardroom. For Roger Trapp's article in Forbes featuring a discussion of this title click here https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogertrapp/2018/10/22/independent-directors-nehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/rogertrapp/2018/10/22/independent-directors-need-to-stand-up-to-activists/#7060008826b0ed-to-stand-up-to-activists/#7060008826b0 For a Roundtable discussion in Financier Worldwide Magazine featuring Deborah Hicks Midanek please click here https://www.financierworldwide.com/roundtable-risks-facing-directors-officers-aug18#.W1BqQdVKiUk Click here for a review in Financial Analysts Journal https://www.cfapubs.org/doi/abs/10.2469/br.v13.n1.10 Click here for an excerpt on Corporate Board Member: https://boardmember.com/what-is-the-governance-revolution/
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 1547400382
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 275
Book Description
Boards of directors are sitting ducks. Shareholders complain and even attack, management manipulates, and individual board members have little power, able to act only as part of the board as a whole. Governance issues are front and center, yet there is often little understanding, even among board members, of the key role that they play. Written in an accessible and human voice, The Governance Revolution: What Every Board Member Needs to Know, NOW! provides information and context essential to anyone seeking to understand how corporations and their stewards—the board of directors—can and should function in the volatile world we inhabit. Deborah Hicks Midanek offers useful insight into what board members of corporations actually do, the current standards for board members and why they exist. She includes a timely discussion of how clarity of purpose can improve board and director effectiveness. Informed by her long experience serving public, private, and family owned corporate boards as well as those of charitable, and government organizations, she provides essential context regarding the evolution of board practice as well as candid discussion of the issues involved in the relentless effort to improve corporate governance processes. Focused mainly on the dominant public corporation, she also explores the special challenges of serving private and family owned as well as nonprofit and public agency boards. Written by a seasoned board member, and liberally laced with stories and cases illustrating the tricky issues directors wrestle with, this book is the essential common-sense companion for anyone working with a board, serving on a board, or wanting to do so. Directors, aspiring directors, investors, and students of corporate behavior will benefit from this highly readable description of the cloistered boardroom. For Roger Trapp's article in Forbes featuring a discussion of this title click here https://www.forbes.com/sites/rogertrapp/2018/10/22/independent-directors-nehttps://www.forbes.com/sites/rogertrapp/2018/10/22/independent-directors-need-to-stand-up-to-activists/#7060008826b0ed-to-stand-up-to-activists/#7060008826b0 For a Roundtable discussion in Financier Worldwide Magazine featuring Deborah Hicks Midanek please click here https://www.financierworldwide.com/roundtable-risks-facing-directors-officers-aug18#.W1BqQdVKiUk Click here for a review in Financial Analysts Journal https://www.cfapubs.org/doi/abs/10.2469/br.v13.n1.10 Click here for an excerpt on Corporate Board Member: https://boardmember.com/what-is-the-governance-revolution/
The Caesars Palace Coup
Author: Sujeet Indap
Publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1635766761
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
It was the most brutal corporate restructuring in Wall Street history. The 2015 bankruptcy brawl for the storied casino giant, Caesars Entertainment, pitted brilliant and ruthless private equity legends against the world's most relentless hedge fund wizards. In the tradition of Barbarians at the Gate and The Big Short comes the riveting, multi-dimensional poker game between private equity firms and distressed debt hedge funds that played out from the Vegas Strip to Manhattan boardrooms to Chicago courthouses and even, for a moment, the halls of the United States Congress. On one side: Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital. On the other: the likes of Elliott Management, Oaktree Capital, and Appaloosa Management. The Caesars bankruptcy put a twist on the old-fashioned casino heist. Through a $27 billion leveraged buyout and a dizzying string of financial engineering transactions, Apollo and TPG—in the midst of the post-Great Recession slump—had seemingly snatched every prime asset of the company from creditors, with the notable exception of Caesars Palace. But Caesars’ hedge fund lenders and bondholders had scooped up the company’s paper for nickels and dimes. And with their own armies of lawyers and bankers, they were ready to do everything necessary to take back what they believed was theirs—if they could just stop their own infighting. These modern financiers now dominate the scene in Corporate America as their fight-to-the-death mentality continues to shock workers, politicians, and broader society—and even each other. In The Caesars Palace Coup, financial journalists Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap illuminate the brutal tactics of distressed debt mavens—vultures, as they are condemned—in the sale and purchase of even the biggest companies in the world with billions of dollars hanging in the balance.
Publisher: Diversion Books
ISBN: 1635766761
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 282
Book Description
It was the most brutal corporate restructuring in Wall Street history. The 2015 bankruptcy brawl for the storied casino giant, Caesars Entertainment, pitted brilliant and ruthless private equity legends against the world's most relentless hedge fund wizards. In the tradition of Barbarians at the Gate and The Big Short comes the riveting, multi-dimensional poker game between private equity firms and distressed debt hedge funds that played out from the Vegas Strip to Manhattan boardrooms to Chicago courthouses and even, for a moment, the halls of the United States Congress. On one side: Apollo Global Management and TPG Capital. On the other: the likes of Elliott Management, Oaktree Capital, and Appaloosa Management. The Caesars bankruptcy put a twist on the old-fashioned casino heist. Through a $27 billion leveraged buyout and a dizzying string of financial engineering transactions, Apollo and TPG—in the midst of the post-Great Recession slump—had seemingly snatched every prime asset of the company from creditors, with the notable exception of Caesars Palace. But Caesars’ hedge fund lenders and bondholders had scooped up the company’s paper for nickels and dimes. And with their own armies of lawyers and bankers, they were ready to do everything necessary to take back what they believed was theirs—if they could just stop their own infighting. These modern financiers now dominate the scene in Corporate America as their fight-to-the-death mentality continues to shock workers, politicians, and broader society—and even each other. In The Caesars Palace Coup, financial journalists Max Frumes and Sujeet Indap illuminate the brutal tactics of distressed debt mavens—vultures, as they are condemned—in the sale and purchase of even the biggest companies in the world with billions of dollars hanging in the balance.