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Listen to this Speech
Amen. And amen. And amen. You have to forgive
me. I'm not familiar with the local custom. Where I come from, you
always say "Amen" after you hear a prayer. Because that's what you just
heard -- a prayer. Where I come from, that particular prayer is called
"The Prayer for the Dead." You just heard The Prayer for
the Dead, my fellow stockholders, and you didn't say, "Amen."
This company is dead. I didn't kill
it. Don't blame me. It was dead when I got here. It's too late for
prayers. For even if the prayers were answered, and a miracle occurred,
and the yen did this, and the dollar did that, and the infrastructure did
the other thing, we would still be dead. You know why? Fiber optics. New
technologies. Obsolescence. We're dead alright. We're just not broke. And
you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a
shrinking market. Down the tubes. Slow but sure.
You know, at one time there must've
been dozens of companies making buggy whips. And I'll bet the last company
around was the one that made the best goddamn buggy whip you ever saw. Now
how would you have liked to have been a stockholder in that company? You
invested in a business and this business is dead. Let's have the
intelligence, let's have the decency to sign the death certificate,
collect the insurance, and invest in something with a future.
"Ah, but we can't," goes the prayer.
"We can't because we have responsibility, a responsibility to our
employees, to our community. What will happen to them?" I got two words
for that: Who cares? Care about them? Why? They didn't care about you.
They sucked you dry. You have no responsibility to them. For the last ten
years this company bled your money. Did this community ever say, "We know
times are tough. We'll lower taxes, reduce water and sewer." Check it out:
You're paying twice what you did ten years ago. And our devoted employees,
who have taken no increases for the past three years, are still making
twice what they made ten years ago; and our stock -- one-sixth what it
was ten years ago.
Who cares? I'll tell you: Me. I'm not
your best friend. I'm your only friend. I don't make anything? I'm making
you money. And lest we forget, that's the only reason any of you became
stockholders in the first place. You want to make money! You don't care if
they manufacture wire and cable, fried chicken, or grow tangerines! You
want make money! I'm the only friend you've got. I'm making you money.
Take the money. Invest it somewhere else.
Maybe, maybe you'll get lucky and it'll be used productively. And if it
is, you'll create new jobs and provide a service for the economy and,
God forbid, even make a few bucks for yourselves. And if anybody asks,
tell them you gave at the plant.
And by the way, it pleases me that I
am called "Larry the Liquidator." You know why, fellow stockholders?
Because at my funeral, you'll leave with a smile on your face and a few
bucks in your pocket. Now that's a funeral worth having!
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