That is such a class move! Congratulations!

How old is Randy? I did not know he was thinking of maybe getting out and always figured he was setting Taylor up to run the company after he was done.

Absolutely correct.

100% true.

This is NOT true. My company is set up like this and the original owners left millions on the table by doing it this way. No amount of tax shelter could have covered what the open market would have paid versus what the employees ended up 'paying'. This of course assumes they did it the right way, which it sounds like they did, and the company simply gets a loan to pay out the original owners and transfers the company to the employees who have to service the loan.

ESOP companies are about half as likely to go bankrupt, are far less likely to close for other random reasons, and the employees tend to retire with about double of what a regular employee would have. In general they tend to work and work really well. There are always exceptions. The owners that I see doing it tend to realize they are set for life money wise and don't need the extra money a sale would create and they want their legacy to live on. They also care about their employees enough to do this for them.

My former workplace had a very generous annual profit sharing bonus.
EVERYONE that worked there and shared in it worked hard knowing it was going to pay off for them come bonus time.
It was motivation like I had never seen before or since.

Oh that sounds like fun when every Tom Dick and Harry is going to start telling everyone their ideas about how to run the company.
Too many Chiefs not enough Indians.

There is likely a very clear process and system in place to avoid the obvious issues.
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It's the not so obvious issues that can throw a wrench into the program.

That’s sexist, what about female staff who may be involved?

Tom, Dick-less and Harry…….

It will be business as usual at MTI. Randy is still the President and Taylor the VP and most likely they are now considered "employees" of MTI.
If I had to guess they have a 51%+ ownership in the ESOP, but I have no idea as to the specifics.