The Caesars Palace Coup

How a Billionaire Brawl Over the Famous Casino Exposed the Power and Greed of Wall Street

By: Max Frumes, Sujeet Indap

Narrated by: Chris Kipiniak

Length: 12 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

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's 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.

©2021 Sujeet Indap and Max Frumes (P)2021 Tantor

Meticulously researched

I enjoyed it but would only recommend it to friends deeply interested corporate finance, private equity, or litigation/bankruptcy law because it really gets into the weeds and there are a lot of lawyers and bankers to keep track of.

All in all, quite an accomplishment and would read or listen to other financial history books by Frumes and Indap.

Almost Perfect

If you liked Barbarians at the Gate, you’ll love this book. This is an impeccably researched telling of one of the most fascinating corporate sagas in decades. The author does an admirable job trying to explain various complex financial concepts - if you don’t have a background in finance you should still read the book, but you may need to rely on Google to grasp some of the more complicated concepts. The author jumps around in the timeline quite a bit, which can be confusing in audiobook format, which is the only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5. If you read the description and it piques your interest at all buy it - it’s more than worth a credit.

As a former Caesars employee...

This is indeed how my equity investment ended up a pennies on the dollar. That said, but for the GQ Bush economy collapse of 2008, things might have worked out and we'd be reading a story about what a visionary Gary was vs this barbarians at the gate cautionary tale....

limited ops scope, amazing content and writing

maybe 20 pages dedicated to the failure of Ops and the actual management of Caesars. The operational failure was a key driver of the bankruptcy so would have liked that sprinkled in the first half. but if you want pure ib and restructuring content, this is amazingly well written and dense. crazy these authors have no other books.

Fascinating battle between financiers and lawyers

Revealed the dark tactics of private equity and the details of the restructuring process, packaged in a fascinating story.

Catnip for Finance Nerds

Wow! Best business book I have read in YEARS- should be required reading for anyone thinking about entering the PE world. Sort of a hybrid of “Bloodsport” and all of Michael Lewis’ books on finance- with an All-star cast of finance titans, lucid explanations of legalese, and the best narrative flow since “Barbarians at the Gates” this book hit me on all levels. I will not be surprised at all to this on a lot of 2021 top ten lists by the end of the year.

Fascinating story of greed

The story is fascinating. The amounts of money being fought over are staggering. The legal drama detailed and entertaining. Good story!

Wow! Wonderful book

If you’re into juicy corporate finance and private equity tales, this is a gem. Great narration as well.

Dense detail....hard to folllow at times

The author spared no details and there were plenty. Lots of numbers characters and events to keep track of.

Great listen

It is a thorough record of events. I enjoyed listening to the many twists and details. Recommend to anyone interested in private equity and investment banking.