The goal of Milken and his fellows was precisely what Leon Black had recorded at the Cavas Gobhai session back in 1979: to finance the “robber barons who would become the owners of the major companies of the future.” But these “robber barons,” as Black admiringly called them, or takeover entrepreneurs—men like Icahn, Sam Heyman, Sir James Goldsmith—tended to be a strong-willed, tough and egocentric breed, disinclined to be anyone’s pawn, even Milken’s. And Milken’s construct, of course, placed an enormous premium on control. Still, what choice did Milken have, other than to play only rookies like Peltz? And besides, with legions of captive clients, Milken could tolerate a handful of freer spirits. No one on the very short list of independent major Drexel players was more autonomous, and more obsessed with his autonomy, than Icahn. Icahn seeks to control every situation that he touches, whether small or global. He talks to reporters only on the condition that any quote be read back to him in context, and he goes over and over the quotes, listening for each nuance, demanding a word change here, a phrase deleted there.
