Transition

CF: Ted, what is this change is going to look like for you? You always told me that you never say never to a deal. Were there any conversations with the folks at Pamlico that were reassuring to you?

Schuman: I actually addressed this in my remarks to our employees. I’ve turned down multiple offers. I get approached almost daily and have been for the last three or four years. It’s just the nature of the world we live in. The private equity community has descended on our channel, validating what we’ve known for years. We have something very special here; it only gets stronger month over month. But for me, I never had found the right fit culturally, for employees and for partners, that really lined up well. In most of these announcements that I read, it’s very self-serving. It’s very much “about me,” but it’s never about the partner. I was focused on what I could do to create a transaction and opportunity that would accelerate both the lives personally, professionally of my employees, as well as partners. And we accomplished that with the merger with Avant. It is a very exciting time. We line up very well. [PlanetOne president Chris] Werpy has been saying behind the scenes, “We want to drop a nuke in the industry.” It got dropped about three hours ago.