Fring acqui-hired Walt. He built a business for distribution and sales, then acquired the competing company for their brand and talent. (Fring ostensibly had a

Fring acqui-hired Walt. He built a business for distribution and sales, then acquired the competing company for their brand and talent. (Fring ostensibly had a cook pre-walt, but it's never addressed). He gave Walt a salary instead of ownership. He saw that Walt was a bad cultural fit, and intended to replace him with Gale. Once Fring was gone, Walt and Jesse went back into business, selling their product to Declan, who only had a distribution and sales organization, and, unlike Fring, was not focused on vertical integration. The metaphor doesn't work around equity, non-competes, etc., unless you know a start-up that uses violence instead of legal documents and arbitration.