After all, why should consumers pay for free-standing real-estate offices and branch banks when you can combine both service offerings under the same roof?

Skeptics said nobody would pay for TV when they could get it for free,

Free ultimately expands markets. Consumers recognize the difference between what they pay for and what they get free. Free can coexist alongside paid media and serve very different needs and markets.

In the appointments to the great offices of the government, my aim has been to combine geographical situation, and sometimes other considerations, with abilities and fitness of known characters

Branch offices have typically not done well here, and the ones that have managed to carve it out actually started as independent entities. One could argue that the Drum side of the equation has got that entrepreneurial blood, and the acquisition simply gives them the resources they need to move to the next level.

When you combine all [the sources of data] you get something that has a punch to it.