Barbarians at the Gate

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco is a 1989 book about the leveraged buyout (LBO) of RJR Nabisco, written by investigative journalists Bryan Burrough and John Helyar. The book is based upon a series of articles written by the authors for The Wall Street Journal.

The book was made into a 1993 made-for-TV movie by HBO, also called Barbarians at the Gate. The book centers on F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJR Nabisco, who planned to buy out the rest of the Nabisco shareholders.

Henry Kravis and his cousin George R. Roberts, opposed to Johnson's bid for the company, were among the pioneers of the leveraged buyout (LBO). Kravis claimed that he was the first person Johnson had talked to about doing the LBO (although the book mentions previous times) and felt betrayed after learning that Johnson wanted to do the deal with another firm, American Express's former Shearson Lehman Hutton division. Ted Forstmann and his Forstmann Little buyout firm also played a prominent role. Additionally, First Boston's James Maher along with Jay Pritzker launch a creative bid but are unsuccessful.

After Kravis and Johnson were unable to reconcile their differences, a bidding war took place which Johnson would eventually lose. The side effect of the augmented buyout price to the shareholders was the creation of a high level of debt for the company.

The title of the book comes from a statement by Forstmann, in which he called Kravis' money "phoney junk bond crap" and declares he and his cousin to be "real people with real money," also stating that to stop raiders like Kravis: "We need to push the barbarians back from the city gates."