"Barbarians at the Gate" by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar

I knew nothing about RJR Nabisco except that they make Oreo cookies, which I like partially because they are vegan. The book unveiled complete corporate insanity that I had no awareness of before. The issues executive management of multi-billion corporations talk about are completely detached from the business itself.

Reading "Barbarians at the Gate" was akin to watching a season of the Succession. The takeover that happened almost four decades ago was significant for the time, even though the 20-something billion acquisition doesn't surprise anyone anymore.

The idea was dead simple: acquire debt, purchase a public company that might perform well under private management, cut the costs, pay off debt, and pray to gods that the revenue and profit projections were somewhat correct. It sounds like Twitter going private in recent years!

Overall, I enjoyed reading the book. However, it wasn't easy to follow all the names. See, all these execs looked very similar: greedy and selfish. I didn't care who would've won, but now I see how the lives of average corporation workers can be swayed by simple drama among the executive officers.