A few weeks ago it looked as if Lazard, an international investment bank of long pedigree, was heading for a buy-out of its controlling shareholders and then for flotation. Now that seems unlikely. The problem is not, as it once was, the holders of the largest blocks of shares, led by La-zard's chairman, Michel David-Weill. They will sell if the price is right, and the $1.25 billion on offer seems satisfactory, although Mr David-Weill has not yet confirmed this publicly (he might soon). The trouble is that Bruce Wasserstein, brought in by Mr David-Weill to run the bank in 2002, seems to have lost control of the transaction among his own colleagues.
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