Goldstone tried to swivel Johnson’s focus from the past to the future. Kravis’s ambush drastically raised the stakes: If they were going to fight, they now would have to top $90 a share. Running a post-LBO company at $90 a share, Goldstone said, would be radically different than running one bought at $75. The added debt would require wholesale cuts of the kind Johnson dreaded. The planes, the Atlanta headquarters, even Premier, would have to be reassessed.
