Best Finance and M&A Background Books? Forum

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cim_can

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Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by cim_can » Sun Mar 10, 2013 3:30 pm

Apologies if this thread already exists, but I am planning on going into a transactional practice in the fall that will involve corporate finance and M&A.

Do people have recommendations on some background books to read? I have my finance textbook from law school, so I'm good there.

I'm thinking more along the lines of financial dictionaries or other general background books that would be interesting and useful. Thanks in advance.

Sup Kid

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by Sup Kid » Sun Mar 10, 2013 4:51 pm

cim_can wrote:Apologies if this thread already exists, but I am planning on going into a transactional practice in the fall that will involve corporate finance and M&A.

Do people have recommendations on some background books to read? I have my finance textbook from law school, so I'm good there.

I'm thinking more along the lines of financial dictionaries or other general background books that would be interesting and useful. Thanks in advance.
Fyi, this relates more to finance work. I would get onto Westlaw Business (your school should have a free account you can use) and pull a first lien/second lien credit agreement and an offering memorandum from a bond deal (these are generally filed for public companies as exhibits to their other filings, so you should easily be able to find a couple -- ask the Westlaw rep for help if you need it). Take those two documents and read through them, highlighting/circling other documents referenced (such as "Collateral Agreement", "Intercreditor Agreement" or "Indenture"). Then, go on PLC (http://us.practicallaw.com/) and read the descriptions for all of those documents.

Doing that will put you at least 2 months ahead of where most transactional people are when beginning their job, and will be 1000x more useful than reading a book; everything else you'll learn on the job. All this said, you really don't need to, or should, do much before starting work. You're expected to know nothing, and these are the last few months of "freedom" you'll have for a while -- enjoy them while they last. HTH.

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thesealocust

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by thesealocust » Sun Mar 10, 2013 5:26 pm

Read A Random Walk Down Wall Street (learn why 99% of what wall street does is for wall street and not for clients) and Barbarians at the Gates (learn how exciting M&A can be if you are writing about it instead of being a first year associate working on it!).

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patrickd139

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by patrickd139 » Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:02 pm

I second Barbarians at the Gates. Very enjoyable read for anyone in transactional work, and incredibly well-written generally.

Jessep

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by Jessep » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:36 pm

Read Anatomy of a Merger. It's an old book, but still helpful and relevant. Guaranteed that your library has a copy. Investopedia.com is great for looking up terms and for some articles (albeit more so for looking up terms). There are also a lot of good transactional blogs written by entrepreneurs and funds that can be interesting to provide a business perspective.

An offering memorandum for a bond deal will not be helpful unless you are going to be doing this type of work. Public bond offerings are very different than M&A and corporate finance, so it's really not worth your time. Go to your library and find model asset purchase agreements, merger agreements and stock purchase agreements. Read through the annotations. It's good to understand the basic concepts about how these documents are structured (what reps & warranties are, what covenants are, etc.). Although this may not be immediate relevant for doing diligence, it will be important to understand, at least eventually. Most firms have form diligence checklists which they will share with you when you arrive, whether it be for finance or M&A. These will help steer you through the diligence process.

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guano

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by guano » Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:52 pm

Comic Wars
it's a lighthearted walk through the bankruptcy and takeover of marvel comics, which was incredibly complicated for several reasons, involved some of the biggest names in finance, and ended up with the company being bought over by its subsidiary

$$$$$$

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by $$$$$$ » Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:18 pm

Liar's Poker - interesting finance read and entertaining
Barbarian's at the Gate - M&A book about one of the largest LBO's - very good book
Investment Banking: Valuation, LBO's and M&A - very good book if you are already decently well-read in finance. Gives you a lot of insight into what bankers do.
Monkey Business - easy, interesting read

There are not really interesting books on corporate finance. If you want to understand companies better and the decisions they make and how those decisions affect the marketplace, then read The Intelligent Investor, by Graham - amazing book.

Other than that, start reading bloomberg and financial blogs on a daily basis to start figuring out how the market works and the types of environments that offerings and M&A deals take place in.

Sweetness

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by Sweetness » Mon Mar 11, 2013 2:34 pm

http://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/acquis ... n-f-84538/

All you need. Throw it on your kindle and you're good.

joetheplumber

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by joetheplumber » Sat Apr 20, 2013 8:00 pm

Tag

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itbdvorm

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by itbdvorm » Mon Apr 22, 2013 3:41 pm

Latham has "books of jargon" on their home page that are actually pretty good. We use them.

weber360

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by weber360 » Mon Jul 22, 2019 1:29 pm

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Yardbird

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by Yardbird » Mon Jul 22, 2019 4:42 pm

If you’ll be doing any PE M&A, the Debevoise Private Equity primer is solid

anonbanker

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by anonbanker » Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:40 am

Too Big to Fail is a really good one that hasn't been mentioned yet

The Accidental Investment Banker is a very nice little piece about being a mid-level investment banker and thoughts on how the industry has evolved over time

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trmckenz

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by trmckenz » Tue Jul 23, 2019 10:32 am

Working with Contracts by Charles M. Fox.

Idontwanttomakeaname

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Re: Best Finance and M&A Background Books?

Post by Idontwanttomakeaname » Tue Jul 23, 2019 11:46 am

Subscribe to Matt Levine's MoneyStuff (daily finance newletter written by a former WLRK lawyer). Its informative and a relatively easy read.

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/autho ... w-s-levine

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