Ron Perelman, a Haverford School graduate, started the era of hostile takeovers with the Revlon acquisition 34 years ago. Now the company is back and with the rules changing again, that era is coming to an end, writes William D. Cohan for the Vanity Fair.

Perelman shocked Wall Street and corporate establishments in 1985 when he bought the cosmetics giant in a hostile takeover valued at $2.7 billion.

Before Perelman, deals done on Wall Street were mostly the old boys’ network divvying up prized assets among themselves without too much interference from the outside.

His Revlon takeover was achieved by having the highest bid and a landmark court victory that stated that once a board decides to sell a company, it has to do so to the highest bidder. This changed the rules of the merger game, creating the “Revlon Mode.”

However, over the years, corporate boards have managed to retake much of the authority taken from them by Perelman’s court victory. Decades later, his Revlon Mode only applies to a “true sale” of a company within industries that are not heavily regulated.

Read more about Ron Perelman at the Vanity Fair by clicking here.