A modern Wall Street icon has left us. Bruce Wasserstein, 61, had been hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat, but his firm Lazard did not offer an indication that the condition was serious. So it was a shock when it was announced that he had passed. Wasserstein was truly an era-defining investment banker. He has been making deals since the 1970s.

Reuters says he brokered more than 1,000 transactions worth more than $250 billion, including Time's merger with Warner Brothers and the Dean Witter's deal with Morgan Stanley (MS). His main claim to fame, however, may be his role in the LBO of RJR Nabsico. He served as an adviser to buyout house KKR (KFN) on its blockbuster bid, which was memorably chronicled "Barbarians at the Gate." He despised the nickname "Bid 'em Up Bruce." But it's fair to say he transformed "deal-making from a business built on relationships, as practiced by forebears like Andre Meyer and Felix G. Rohatyn of Lazard, into one built on high-priced free agency," notes the New York Times.

He loved the game. He was also credited with the Pac-man defense. Wasserstein, despite a rumpled, academic success, seemed destined for success on Wall Street. He earned a degree from the University of Michigan and then enrolling in Harvard Law--at 19. He then worked at Cravath before joining First Boston. 

For more:
- here's a Reuters article
- here's the Times article

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