Let's Make a Deal

• Share

(4 of 4)

Yet Drexel still displays its characteristic moxie. The firm is handling a $3.5 billion junk-bond offering as part of the $25 billion leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco. For its share in financing history's largest takeover, Drexel expects to take in $229 million before expenses. Many clients still profess their allegiance. Says raider and oilman Pickens, who relied on Drexel's financing clout to make bids for Gulf Corp. and Phillips Petroleum: "I have the highest regard for Fred Joseph."

To help burnish its image, Drexel has been courting Howard Baker, the former Senator and White House chief of staff, as a possible new chairman or CEO. Joseph may step aside after the settlement is complete. Without a forceful new leader of unquestioned integrity, the company is in danger of losing morale and momentum -- and something else as well. Mike Milken engendered an innovative spirit at Drexel. If the company is to thrive once again, it must somehow preserve that spirit while at the same time escaping the darker side of his legacy.