Duke CEO Switch Probe Shows Pain Inside Progress Merger
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Duke Energy Corp.’s ousted Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson offered rare insight into the strains that can occur in multibillion-dollar takeovers in testimony at a hearing before North Carolina regulators yesterday.
“They had buyer’s remorse,” Johnson said of Duke’s $17.8 billion takeover of Progress Energy Inc. “They wanted the merger, then they didn’t want it, then they couldn’t get out of it, then they didn’t want to be stuck with me as the person who dragged them to it.”