Shades of Black: Conrad Black - His Rise and Fall

Mr. Siklos' biography, for those who want to get the measure of Conrad Black, is close to definitive. He not only corrects minor inaccuracies in Peter Newman's THE ESTABLISHMENT MAN, but he also extends the story right up to the 2004 ouster. As you read through it, you'll see certain parallels in Black's life emerging. Conrad Black was the younger son of a businessman who retired early, at a time when retirement at forty-eight was considered odd. As a child, Conrad had a capacious memory, honed into perfection by his father's training of him. He was mentored by Bud MacDougald, the top boss of a dividend company named Argus. It was there that Conrad Black hit upon the idea of accumulating cash flow to use for takeovers, and where he developed an inclination for asset shuffles and corporate reorganizations. Previous to Black being ushered into the Argus world, he and his long-time partner, David Radler, had built up a chain of newspapers, Sterling, almost from the ground up. The secret behind their success was, essentially, cost-cutting. Black had found some notoriety as well as fame from his writings, but it was his takeover of Argus, a true coup, that brought him fame as a businessperson in 1978. Notoreity followed fame when two of the companies controlled by Argus began to founder; he also encountered some legal trouble in the early 1980s. Conrad Black does have a law degree, and is comfortable following precedent or custom, but is also comfortable with grey areas in the law, and in pushing the envelope of custom or tradition. (An example of this last trait would be his supplementation of Mr. MacDougald's strategy, of using the accumulated surpluses in Argus plus some borrowed money to acquire more shares of companies he thought were undervalued, by borrowing copiously instead of sparingly.) These traits are evident throughout Mr. Siklos' book. Those who want to get the measure of Conrad Black would do well to pay close attention to part 1 of the book, as it describes Black's return to the station of a newspaper proprietor after learning much about financing and asset management at Argus, later folded into Hollinger Inc. I read the original version when it first came out, and can vouch for the claim that it is "expanded and updated." If you're interested in Conrad Black, you may wind up reading this book a few times, not only once.