THE BIGGEST GAME OF ALL: The Inside Strategies, Tactics, and Temperaments That Make Great Dealmakers Great

Hindery, the CEO of the YES Network, the New York Yankees' cable channel, has handled some 250 deals in his 25-year career with considerable success. Along the way he's learned lessons like "do more homework than the other guy" and "read the fine print." His book is strongest when he conversationally writes of the deals he was part of, such as the YES Network's troubled creation ("So much dirt got hurled you could have built a new ballfield with it"). He addresses fundamental business issues, but often it's the personalities that drive these deals. Corporate politics are captivating so long as characters like George Steinbrenner are involved, and Hindery boldly names people who've crossed him in the past. He sorts brilliant deal makers from the merely competent by seeking some key qualities, including vision, chutzpah and moxie. Many name-brand CEOs make his list—John Malone, Gerald Levin, Sumner Redstone—but a few biggies are absent, including Bill Gates and Lee Iacocca. Although Hindery credits Gates's predictive powers, he's blunt about Gates's inability to pull off the big merger: "Let's be brutally honest here—the guy is no dealmaker." Although entertaining, Hindery's conclusions are sometimes questionable; many of his star deal makers have fallen from grace. (Gerald Levin was pushed out of AOL Time Warner, and former WorldCom CEO Bernard Ebbers led the company into bankruptcy.) (Feb. 3)