David Rosenthal: commitment

Transcript context

…Imagine for every dollar you make, 73 cents is getting paid in taxes. He's like, "This is the worst structure imaginable! Whatever it is, it has to be different than this." Yep. So he says to Teo, "All right, I will sell to you, but here are my conditions: Number one, Trader Joe's will not become part of Aldi. We will share nothing. These are totally different businesses. You won't use Trader Joe's as a vehicle for Aldi Nord to come to America. Two, Ben, like you're saying, we will have complete management autonomy. And the strategic operating plan that we are going with now and for the future is private label, not the Aldi massive discount operating plan. You either believe that and are in, or there's no deal. Three, I can stay on as CEO for as long or as short as I like. No management contract. It is 100% up to me. Four, the price you're going to pay for the company is three times what you offered me a couple years ago. 'We're going to put all this in a contract. It is going to be a one-page deal. We're going to put these deal points in here: one-page contract, no diligence, no definitive merger agreement BS. That's it. One page with these points. I will draft it. Sign the paper if you like it. Pay me and my employees the money, or no deal.' And Teo says, 'Great, I'm in.'"…

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