I have some big news for you. We have just bought Smith Company, our biggest rivals! The deal will be announced publicly tomorrow. We will spend the next six months working out logistics -- how to best absorb their employees and buildings and assimilate them into our corporate culture. Once this transition process is completed, we will be the largest company in our industry. Though there will be several changes, none of you will lose your positions. And please inform your employees that all of them will be retained. We don't know yet how many workers from the Smith Company that we will keep, or exactly what positions they will have with us. The biggest advantage for us is that we get Smith's nearly two million customers, to complement the three-and-a-half million we have now. Our focus will be on retaining the Smith customers during the transition. We want you to think about how to do this, and we will meet again next week to brainstorm specific ideas. You can announce the news to your staff this afternoon, but please caution them not to say anything until the public announcement is made tomorrow morning.
