Succession at any company is challenging, and unfortunately the expectations that Bill and I and others had when he joined the company a year ago didn't play out as we had hoped. I want to personally thank Bill for his dedication and commitment over the past year.

Yesterday we got a bullish comment on Coke that raised expectations of the company reporting to the upside. That didn't happen today. Secondly, the quality of their earnings wasn't great, Although sales were up for the quarter, margins declines and it looked like they also shipped more around the world than was consumed.

This is obviously a strong quarter, but investors did have high expectations for what the company could do,

The company had fantastic numbers, in accordance with my expectations. It is still doing well because of its high-grade products.

The company didn't better expectations.

Overall, the results are ahead of expectations and it gives the company an argument to fight for in the ensuing debate which I think the shareholders are expecting.