Driving home from the Sampson Paint Manufacturing Company on a beautiful spring afternoon, David Finster reviewed the question of whether he should purchase the business. Four months earlier on December 20, 1980, he had been named president of Sampson Paint and its 82%-owned subsidiary, the Alcatraz Company; both were paint manufacturing companies, with headquarters and manufacturing facilities in Richmond, Virginia, and combined sales of $5.2 million. Finster had agreed to a one-year employment contract while he pondered his decision. Sampson was near bankruptcy, and if Finster hoped to turn it around, he would also have to decide how to structure the deal.
