Mesa

"Richard ended up referencing it, and I had to come clean with the paperwork. Boone was highly agitated. The meeting was essentially over at that point even though, in true Rainwater fashion, Richard invited the Mesa team to join us all for some cake and ice cream and loud country music in the office to celebrate a colleague’s birthday. Richard entertained us all, but Boone was not amused. I later learned that on the ride home he had some choice words to say about me and my numbers."

"Boone was a champion of shareholder rights and made the point at all those companies that the incumbent management teams were not working hard enough to increase shareholder value. Hence, his narrative went, he bid for the stock to reward the shareholders and get control. While the strategy didn’t work in the end, in each case the stock prices increased from his purchase price, so he was able to sell out at a nice profit. This rewarded both Boone and the Mesa equity holders, of course."