The roller-coaster life of the flamboyant crealor of General Motors William C. Durant did big things the big way: he overreached, but, until his final failure, he picked up the pieces time after time to confound his competitors. From a turbulent childhood in the small town of Flint, Michigan, to his phenomenal success in creating General Motors, Durant's meteoric career easily rivals the success stories, of modern legends like Ted Turner, Rupert Murdoch, and Bill Gates. With his trademark smile and personal charisma, Durant assembled General Motors in a few short years, buying companies at the rate of one every thirty days. Durant's deal-making artistry even tempted Henry Ford, and had Durant upped his acquisition price Ford would be a division of GM today. Durant's story illuminates the conflict between innovation and control of innovation-of the uneasy alliances struck again and again between inventors and their sources of capital. His years of heady success building General Motors were marked by epic struggles with bankers. But he depended on only a few sources of big money to finance his exploding business, and pitted himself against forces he underestimated or refused to consider. Gambling on a run on GM stock, he was finally forced into a buy-out that ousted him from his role in the GM empire.Im Zeitalter eines Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch und Richard Branson glaubt man nur allzu gern, daß das Anhäufen eines Vermögens ein modernes Phänomen ist. Der bekannte Biograph Axel Madsen William erzählt hier die phantastische Geschichte von Leben und Karriere des William C. Durant: Eine menschliche Geschichte über einen schwindelerregenden Aufstieg, bei dem Durant 25 Firmen unter dem General Motors Banner zusammenschloß und über einen hoffnungslosen Absturz an der Börse, bei dem Durant sein komplettes Vermögen verlor und in Armut starb. (y09/99)