Bruce Wasserstein, 61; strategist of massive mergers, takeovers

Mr. Wasserstein was hospitalized with an irregular heartbeat on Sunday. The company said in a statement yesterday the cause of death had not yet been determined. It didn’t say when or where he died.

Steven J. Golub, vice chairman of Lazard, was named interim chief executive, the statement said. Golub, 63, has been with the company since 1984.

Formerly a corporate lawyer, Mr. Wasserstein rose to the top of the ranks of merger advisers during the 1980s and won a well-publicized battle with Michel David-Weill to take Lazard Freres & Co. public. He became chairman and chief executive in May 2005.

“He made more from investment banking than any man on the planet,’’ said William Cohan, author of the 2007 book “The Last Tycoons: The Secret History of Lazard Freres & Co.’’

Mr. Wasserstein used his wealth to become a media owner, buying New York magazine for $55 million in 2003. He paid $63 million for American Lawyer and $200 million for National Law Publishing Co. in 1997 and sold those publications to Incisive Media of the UK for $630 million.

He helped guide transactions including Philip Morris Cos.’ $13 billion bid for Kraft Inc. in 1988, KKR& Co.’s $31.4 billion offer for RJR Nabisco Inc. in 1989, and the $15.7 billion merger of Time Inc. and Warner Bros. in 1990.

“Bruce brought with him this combination of very, very complete technical knowledge of the law, and at the same time he was very imaginative in the kinds of deals and takeovers that he advised clients on,’’ Felix Rohatyn, a former managing director of Lazard, said. “It’s a big loss.’’

In the RJR Nabisco deal, Henry Kravis made sure he had Mr. Wasserstein on his side “so that he couldn’t represent somebody else,’’ Cohan said.

Mr. Wasserstein brought to a deal a “brand of psychological bullying’’ that could influence his own clients to stay in the bidding and not give up, Forbes said in a 1989 profile. That trait prompted critics to call him “Bid-’Em-Up Bruce.’’

Also, his ability to devise tactics, such as “locking up’’ rights to the most coveted piece of a takeover target, earned him the reputation as “someone who more often than not will pull a rabbit out of the hat,’’ Robert Slater wrote in his 1999 book, “The Titans of Takeover.’’

The New York native learned mergers and acquisitions at First Boston Corp., now part of Credit Suisse AG, and left with Joseph Perella in 1988 to found Wasserstein, Perella & Co.

Germany’s Dresdner Bank AG bought Wasserstein, Perella for $1.56 billion in 2001, moving Mr. Wasserstein into the ranks of the wealthiest people in the United States. Forbes magazine estimated his net worth to be $2.3 billion last month, tied for 190th on its annual list of 400 richest Americans.

Bruce Jay Wasserstein was born on Dec. 25, 1947, in Brooklyn. His mother thought his birth date gave him “Messiah potential,’’ Wendy Wasserstein told New York magazine in 2002, a year before her brother bought it.

His father, Morris, was an immigrant from Poland who had started a ribbon company with his brothers.

After the death of his oldest brother, Morris married his widowed sister-in-law, Lola, and became father to their two children, according to Cohan’s book. Together, Morris and Lola had three more children - Georgette, Bruce and Wendy, the celebrated playwright whose works included “The Heidi Chronicles.’’ She died in 2006, at 55.

Mr. Wasserstein entered the University of Michigan at 16, majoring in political science, and ascended to executive editor of the student newspaper. He considered becoming a journalist.

At Harvard University Law School, he entered a dual-degree program in law and business and graduated in 1971 with a law degree, cum laude, and a master’s in business administration, with high distinction.

Through a summer job at Ralph Nader’s consumer-advocacy organization Public Citizen, Mr. Wasserstein met Mark Green, later to become New York City’s public advocate. They co-edited “With Justice for Some: An Indictment of the Law by Young Advocates’’ and co-wrote “The Closed Enterprise System,’’ which argued that lax antitrust enforcement led to monopolies and inflated prices.

Mr. Wasserstein “apparently learned some unexpected lessons from the project,’’ says a history featured on Nader’s website, because “he would go on to become a major figure on Wall Street as a corporate merger and acquisitions specialist.’’

A 1972 research project on British mergers, which he undertook while studying at Cambridge University, stoked Mr. Wasserstein’s interest in business. He joined the New York-based law firm Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP, and then moved in 1977 to First Boston to join the mergers and acquisitions group led by Perella.

Mr. Wasserstein and Perella left First Boston in 1988 to form the firm that became known as “Wasserella.’’ Perella left in 1993.

In 2001, David-Weill, chairman of Lazard Freres, asked Mr. Wasserstein to run the firm founded by his ancestors in 1848 in New Orleans. Mr. Wasserstein persuaded David-Weill to take Lazard public, and the initial offering in May 2005 raised $854.6 million.

“He was afraid of sharing power and tried his very best - and succeeded - in expelling me,’’ David-Weill told Vanity Fair in 2005. “That is his nature. He is a man of solitary power.’’

In 2007, Mr. Wasserstein donated $25 million to Harvard Law School for construction of an academic center. It was the second-largest gift in the law school’s history. Mr. Wasserstein also was a major donor to the Democratic Party.