Vienvindez, that's California for welcome to the April 30th edition of National Review's Radio Free California podcast.

I'm Will Swame, CEO of the California Policy Center. You can find my colleagues and me at California Policy Center.org. You can find my friend and co-host David Bonson right here. Say it with me. He's an economist. He's host of the Capitol Record podcast. He's author of the book full-time, work in the meaning of life. And, of course, he's founder of the eponymous investment firm, the Bonson Group. Hello, David. Hello, Will. How are you, my friend? I'm good. Talk to us about news out of Bonson World. What last week, you and I sat together for, I don't know, 90 minutes or so, chit-shatted about a bunch stuff, and you never brought up the headline news of that very day, or at least it was for me, as I read it, what happened? Well, where did you hear about it on social media or did you see one of the news stories? I saw it on, I think it was your newsletter, the Dividend Cafe, no? You did not. Then I must have seen it in social media, perhaps. I don't know. All I remember is texting you immediately going, how'd you do this,

sitting next to each other? Well, no, no, no. When I was sitting with you, the deal hadn't been

announced yet. My NDA, I don't remember what day it is. I don't know what's going on.

All I can tell you is that the announcement that the Bonson Group has sold to our partners at Hightower came out at some point after you and I recorded.

Okay.

And so I don't know if you saw the Barron story or something like that, but either way, I couldn't tell you then because I was under a confidentiality agreement, which I've been under

for three months now.

And so what are the terms of the deal?

Why is this exciting years?

The terms of the deal are none of your business.

Okay.

No, I, it's not a big deal.

It's a big deal for us, but Hightower is a company that we've been associated with since I left

Morgan Stanley over 11 years ago, but we have had a relationship with them more like a vendor

where we've utilized them for a lot of back office services, technology compliance.

Their private equity back company, I'm on their board, and it's been a very good partnership for a long time.

We're a major contributor to their revenue and earnings, but they didn't own any of us,

and they own the majority, a part of, or all of, the majority of the businesses that they work with.

And they approached me over three months ago and said

it was time to consummate the relationship in a different way. So we entered a period in negotiations.

I will be continuing to run the company for the rest of my life. I will continue to be running it exactly how I have been.

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