Because inside the merge agreement, and this is almost unheard of, when we get the premium, is that to not have me become CEO eighteen months later, 75% of the board would have to vote me out. And the board was eight Bank One people and eight JPMorgan people.

I think the first is run your company well. And people thought I was gonna start doing deals immediately. I was like, no, we suck. We don't we haven't earned the right to run someone else's company yet. When we're running a good company, we can merge with somebody.

Contrarian take on M&A strategy with brutal self-assessment ('we suck'). Provides clear framework for when to pursue acquisitions, with refreshing honesty about capabilities.