That is what a nominee chain looks like and there are thousands of them and most exist for tax reasons.

What he sold was timing.

This is the part that took me longest to understand and it is the part I now explain to anybody who will listen, because I think most people carry a wrong idea about what information is worth.

In a competitive process for a private company — a family business, say, that four firms want — the thing that decides the outcome is almost never a secret.

Everybody has the financials.