This study traces the evolution of the modern merger phenomenon, which was sparked off by the low prices of the mid-seventies that made corporations look like rare bargains. The careers of some of its leading players - men like lawyers Joseph Flom and Marty Lipton, banker Bob Greenhill of Morgan Stanley, oil man T. Boone Pickens, Carl Icahn and Boesky himself - who irrevocably changed the way Wall Street does business - are also discussed.