A fellow pilot friend of mine was on the WAL Board of Directors. On about 15 hours notice, the CEO called him to report to NYC. My friend had a trip out that day and the boss told him to call in sick. The next morning, he boarded a UAL flight from SFO to JFK under an assumed name.. He couldn't tell his wife that he was on company business; she thought that he was on a line trip. When he arrived at the hotel, went to his room, a sealed packet was on his bed with merger papers. The next morning, under tight security, he was taken to the merger offices of Dillon Read and signed away to DAL