aaron easterly dog vacay's biggest competitor had always considered the possibility of merging the two companies. >> does it make sense to put this thing together early? i think at the time there wasn't a lot of interest, but we continued that conversation for five years straight. >> and they met with other ceos to understand what it really takes to bring two companies together. >> talked to people at grubhub and seamless. a number of marketplace deals that consolidated that we talked to the leaders of that in depth and, generally, the advice was, whatever the plan is going to be, it's going to be debatable. so, just have to accept the fact that there's going to be imperfections. butclarity. don't waver and move very fast. >> in march of 2017, after years of conversations, rover acquired dog vacay in an all-stock deal. >> look at all the value that could be created with this deal, but most of the value comes from the tough choices that happen post-close. and your ability to execute well as a combined team. >> the first order of business was getting both teams onboard. employees found o