My Fairly Recent Lunch with Ivan Boesky

I saw the news earlier today that that Ivan Boesky has died…

Back in the 1980s Boesky was a controversial risk arbitrageur who bet on the outcome of mergers.

His book, “Merger Mania,” came at the peak of his celebrity in 1985. I still have an autographed copy on my bookshelf.

As the New York Times said in its obituary..

He came to symbolize Wall Street greed as a central figure of the 1980s insider trading scandals, and who went to prison for his misdeeds…

I hadn’t thought much about Ivan until one day in October 2021 when I was dropping our grand-dog off at the groomer here in San Diego. It was at a small strip center with just a handful of stores and the kind of cramped single-lane parking lot you have to back out of.

‘Do I Know You?’

I was wearing sunglasses and shorts. While I was about to walk the dog the brief distance to the groomer, I waited for a car to drive by. But it stopped, the window went down and the driver said, “Herb Greenberg?”

I didn’t recognize the person, and I said, “Do I know you?”

“Ivan Boesky,” he said, flashing a smile.

Last time I saw Ivan was during a VERY contentious interview I had with him in the 1980s. It was after a speech he gave at the University of Chicago… when he clearly was not happy with my line of questioning.

I had never met him before that interview… and never talked to him after.

Let’s Do Lunch

Now, here we were in a chance meeting in a small parking lot in San Diego. After chatting a few minutes, I suggested we grab lunch sometime.

So we did, at The Cottage in La Jolla, not far from his house. Obviously I raised the issue that I wanted to write about our lunch, but he preferred it just be private, which was fine with me. I was just so curious…

As it turns out, the lunch was fairly unremarkable and friendly. He clearly did not want to dredge up the past, or “the event,” as he called it.

He preferred to talk about his family and his current life…. and how much he still loves investing.

I don’t remember much else from the lunch, but while we were setting it up we swapped a few emails.

I had just joined my prior employer, a newsletter company, and sent him something I wrote about how I was rethinking life and priorities as I closed in on 70, while not retiring. He responded..

I empathize with your idea of retiring versus the pull of the arena.

I have had that dilemma a number of times but after 55 years in the business you will find me at my desk each morning at 4:30 eager to see what the day will bring.

As it turns out, and as I told him, that’s around when I get going, too.

After lunch, we shook hands and said “let’s do this again.”

We never did.

R.I.P.

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DISCLAIMER: This is solely my opinion based on my observations and interpretations of events, based on published facts and filings, and should not be construed as personal investment advice. (Because it isn’t!)

I can be reached at herb@herbgreenberg.com.