While merger mania was in full swing during 2015, at least one agency owner didn't take the money and run in December.
During a month-long delay in closing a deal, Wichita, Kansas-based M&M Insurance Associates owner Jim Newhouse, 85, got cold feet. He was set to sell his agency to Parsons, Kansas-based Wood-Dulohery Insurance Inc. but ultimately thought otherwise.
“I don't have anything to do if I don't come to work,” Mr. Newhouse told The Wichita Eagle newspaper. “I don't golf. I don't gamble. … I come to work, and I enjoy it.”
He told the newspaper that he broke the news to Wood-Dulohery management in person. “I went down to their office, and I told them I was sorry, I just couldn't sell it,” Mr. Newhouse said.
“I may be 85, but I don't feel like I'm 85, and I'm not ready to retire,” Mr. Newhouse told the Eagle. “I just couldn't do it.”
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