Why retire April 30?

[SamAdams]

So I think johngrant might be on to something.  At some point after the Feb. 28th call, I now believe Phil committed to retiring.  Was it a promise to Mitsui or just the realization that if the BoD moved in a certain direction he would retire.  Perhaps it was simply the fact he would not be interested in managing the new IOC and his skills were best used elsewhere.  Perhaps he would not be interested in working with certain bidders.  He may have thought it would all be done by April 30th.  Phil does shoot from the hip.  His announcing the imminent spudding of Elk-3 is evidence of his belief that a partner was close and as well as his shooting from the hip.  What may have changed in Mid April is enhanced bids.  What kommonsents has suggested could have also protracted negotiations and would make sense to me.  A board meeting which narrowed the field to 2 or eliminated Phils favored path then triggered the legal disclosure of his planned retirement.  This is a bit different than an emotional retirement and would be consistent with no Board level divisions.  This as best as I can figure it out logically, though still a bit confounding.  But what is IOC without curve balls.  This will not affect a deal.  New CEO won't affect deal eithe, as this is a board level decision.  Kudos to Kommonsents for some original thinking.  That's what makes SHU valuable.