Lazard CEO Bruce Wasserstein Dies At 61

Bruce Wasserstein, the CEO of Lazard Ltd. and a prominent Wall Street dealmaker, has died, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday. He was 61.

Wasserstein was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat, the company said on Sunday. In a statement Wednesday, Lazard's board said the cause of death had not yet been determined.

Wasserstein had been a Wall Street superstar since the 1980s, working on such landmark deals as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts' takeover of RJR Nabisco, and the Morgan Stanley-Dean Witter and AOL-Time Warner mergers.

He was the driving force behind Lazard, one of Wall Street's top mergers and acquisitions advisory firms. Wasserstein was under contract to serve as Lazard CEO through 2012.

Vice Chairman Steven J. Golub was named interim CEO of the company. Golub, 63, has been with Lazard since 1984. He has served in various senior leadership positions, including as CFO and chairman of Lazard's Financial Advisory business.

"We are shocked and greatly saddened by the passing of Bruce Wasserstein. He was a visionary leader, a devoted father to his children and a good friend," the company's board said in the statement.

Rochdale Securities analyst Richard Bove said the loss is a blow to the company.

"Mr. Wasserstein was the main driver that created Lazard as a public company," Bove said. "He forced the expansion of the business and his contacts brought in deals. He cannot be replaced easily or perhaps at all."

Collins Stewart LLC analyst Andrew St. Pierre, however, said Lazard has a deep management bench, and expects the company to post improved profit as the merger and acquisition environment improves. In a note to clients, St. Pierre said he expects the company's stock to sell off in the wake of Wasserstein's death and advised investors to take advantage of the opportunity to build positions.

In the 1980s, Wasserstein and Joseph Perella ran First Boston Corp.'s mergers and acquisitions department before leaving to form their own boutique investment bank, Wasserstein Perella Group Inc. It was at Wasserstein Perella that the pair worked on the RJR Nabisco deal, at the time the biggest corporate takeover in U.S. history, with a price tag of $24.5 billion.

The deal was chronicled in the 1990 book "Barbarians at the Gate," by journalists Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, and later made into an Emmy award-winning television movie starring James Garner as RJR Nabisco CEO F. Ross Johnson.

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

Wasserstein joined Lazard in 2001 with a mission to turn the investment bank around, and make it more competitive against bigger firms like Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley. He took the company public in May 2005, and continued to drive a series of high-profile deals. In 2006, he led a report which agreed with billionaire investor Carl Icahn that Time Warner should be broken up into four companies _ AOL, Time Warner Cable, publishing and entertainment _ amid shareholder dissatisfaction with the outcome of the AOL-Time Warner merger.

Lazard has remained relatively strong throughout the economic downturn. Its second-quarter profits fell 18 percent 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.

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

Wasserstein also owns New York Media Holdings LLC, which publishes New York magazine.

Forbes magazine estimates Wasserstein'snet worth at $2 billion.

Wasserstein was the brother of Wendy Wasserstein, a Tony award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who died in 2006. Her plays included "The Heidi Chronicles" and "The Sisters Rosensweig." He is survived by his wife and children, including the daughter of his late sister Wendy, The New York Times said Wednesday.