DAVID TETEN
New York, NY USA
Wedding Speech – January 5, 2003
Friends, Russians, countrymen, thank you so much for joining us today.
We first want to thank the people who made today possible:
- Carol and Jean Teten, who choreographed the weekend and made all of the beautiful decorations that you see today;
- Sofiya Kozlova and Vladimir Rozov, who determined that we had good chemistry and provided extensive moral and logistical support for today;
- Rabbi and Rebbetzin Schwartz, who taught our chasan and kallah classes (preparation for being husband and wife);
- Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi, Chabad Rabbi of Cambridge, our mesader kiddushin (rabbi);
- David’s rabbis and teachers in Israel who could not be with us today (Rabbi Nota Schiller, Rabbi Noach Weinberg, Rabbi Zelig Pliskin, and others);
- Our many friends who helped in so many ways during our dating and engagement, many of which are present today; and
And lastly, we want to thank the omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, entity to which we all pay obeisance daily, the entity without which few of us could live, the entity to which we believe and pray daily, and the entity responsible for each of us meeting the other: the internet.
We have in mind my sister Ruth, who unfortunately could not be with us today, but is thinking of us in Israel with her five children.
I should point out that Luba and I spent a significant amount of time planning the seating today, segmenting the tables by background, marital status, interests, age, and religion, as well as height, weight, and how attractive you are. We very much hope that you will all make an effort to get to know the people at your table, and at neighboring tables.
Getting married is very similar to the process of selling or merging a company. The main difference is that the dividends in marriage are payable daily and increase consistently faster than the rate of inflation. I spent several years in my 20s preparing myself to be a desirable candidate on the marriage market, and in the fall of 1999 seriously started my roadshow. After meeting with a number of potential investors, I was very fortunate to meet the one, the only, the exceptional, Luba.
The shareholders of Luba Inc. and the shareholders of Teten Inc. have each unanimously approved the merger of Luba Inc. with David Inc., at a special meeting held here today.
As CEO of David Inc., I would like to share with you the top ten reasons why I feel so exceptionally fortunate to participate in this merger:
1) Luba is a perfect complement to holes in David’s strategic portfolio.
2) Our diversity of culture, language, and interests should help to smooth out future utility streams.
3) Many research analysts examined Luba over the past months—my parents and friends – and unanimously they agreed that this was an exceptionally synergistic transaction.
4) Luba’s risk factors are trivial. She has no asbestos exposure, minimal use of derivatives, and Maxim [her brother] provides excellent protection against hackers. The only risk factor here is not participating in this transaction at the earliest possible opportunity.
5) When one creates subsidiaries, inevitably they resemble the parent company. I would consider myself very fortunate to generate subsidiaries which share all of Luba’s excellent qualities.
6) Luba Inc. shares David Inc’s commitment to Continuous Quality Improvement and Total Quality Management.
7) Both companies are equal opportunity employers, and do not discriminate, in matters of hiring or promotion, on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, military service eligibility, veteran status, sexual orientation, financial status, marital status, or disability.
8) Luba has many centers of excellence in areas that I am less strong, and therefore I can learn from her. For example, her knowledge of Vedic mathematics.
9) Luba will force me to grow, and allow me to grow, and enable me to grow. As the gemara says, a man cannot know G-d until he knows a woman.
10) LOVE. In describing the love of God, the great Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1135-1204) says, “One only loves God with the knowledge with which one knows Him. According to the knowledge, so will be the love. If your knowledge is little or much, so will your love be little or much.” We can apply this insight to human love as well. The definition of “love” is recognizing the virtuous qualities in another. Jewish tradition maintains that true love develops after marriage, not before. In Genesis 24:67, the verse states “…and she (Rebecca) became his (Isaac’s) wife and he loved her.” Luba is such a sterling individual that my love for her will only grow as the years pass. Today, my love for her is strong, but I predict that it will grow to Schwarzenegger proportions in the not-distant future.
This document contains forward-looking statements that involve risks, uncertainties and assumptions. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements. Risks, uncertainties and assumptions include the possibility that the merger does not close or that prior to the closing of the proposed merger, the businesses of the companies suffer due to uncertainty; the market for the sale of certain products and services may not develop as expected; that development of these products and services may not proceed as planned; that the parties are unable to transition customers, successfully execute their integration strategies, or achieve planned synergies; other risks that are described from time to time in our SEC reports. If any of these risks or uncertainties materializes or any of these assumptions proves incorrect, our results could differ materially from our expectations in these statements. We assume no obligation and do not intend to update these forward-looking statements.
In other words, she is the only woman I met who I knew was my life partner.
