In 2018, Bloomberg referred to Tananbaum as "one of Wall Street’s biggest investors in distressed debt.

"[4] Tananbaum worked for Kidder, Peabody & Co., before joining MacKay Shields, where he led the firm's high yield group.

[citation needed] Tananbaum's art collection includes works by Damien Hirst, Brice Marden, Ellsworth Kelly, Frank Stella, Willem de Kooning, Gerhard Richter, Jenny Saville, Takashi Murakami, Andreas Gursky, and Tom Sachs.

[4][9] In January 2020, an agreement was filed in Manhattan Supreme Court and the case was settled; terms were undisclosed.

[10] In 2017, the Tananbaums gave $1 million to endow a curatorial position at the Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University.