Kevin Tawil

One of the great things about Lockline is we were in the industry together.

We probably knew as much about them as they knew about themselves.

And there was such a great value to be created by putting the two companies together because we could take their business model, apply ours to it and create tremendous value because we had this vertically integrated approach.

And we could increase their EBITDA X-fold almost on day one.

We wanted this company because we knew value was going to get created.

That said, it was a stock deal.

We're marrying these people.

And DST would have two board seats and a third of the company.

And negotiations during that time, they're always challenging, but they were fraught a little bit by the fact that negotiating with one another, but you're also seeing how the other person is treating you along the way because you're going to be partners.

And right at the last minute, the 11th hour, we're about to sign a deal.

And

Lo and behold, a wrinkle emerges.

The seller wants to ensure that we maintain a presence in Kansas City, a physical presence for a long period of time, because it was important to him that jobs stay in the community.

And this was going to have an impact on the synergies because we had imagined contracting material.

So we went back into our own room and thought about it.

It became clear the loss of that synergy wasn't going to be enough to derail the deal in any way.

But how we were being treated along the way didn't feel good.

So I reached out to Irv and said,

Got advice from him.

He wisely said, look, now you know at least who you're dealing with.