cover image Macy's for Sale

Macy's for Sale

Isadore Barmash. George Weidenfeld & Nicholson, $19.95 (8pp) ISBN 978-1-55584-139-3

New York Times reporter Barmash ( Welcome to Our Conglomerate . . . You're Fired ) here chronicles one of the more startling management/stockholder transactions in recent financial historythe leveraged buyout of the R. H. Macy retailing concern by a group of company executives under Macy CEO Edward S. Finkelstein. In a lively narrative, Barmash recalls how the Strauss family owners made the department store a New York institution (with holiday fireworks and parades), yielding power eventually to modern business personalities with big ideas. There is plenty of inside information about the world of retailing and boardroom infighting, as the author describes Macy's national expansion and the rise and fall of many management types. (Feb.)