You forgot a classic - instantly decide to migrate all systems. Two CRM systems - no problem company A will switch next month. Multiple finance systems - again no problem, company B was probably dying to get rid of their system which they just finished implementing. System mergers are easy - attack them right away, don't waste time on planning!
Getting the timeline of any business venture right is imperative, however this is especially the case when a merger's taking place. Draging it out not only exhausts precious resources, it also gyrates on the nerves of the employees who want to get it over with and have everyting move in a routinely manner again. Plus it doesn't really do anything positive for the PR value of the companies involved.
Another issue I've seen is the whole area of intellectual property post-M&A, where upper-level execs leave (by choice or not), having signed some kind of non-compete, but end up at another company and have some similar or cross-over responsibilities. The prior company then sues the exec for IP or non-compete breach. What can organizations and employees do to protect themselves in these cases? Obviously, as an ex-employee, you don't want to tie yourself up in a lawsuit but you also need/want to make a good living, which means using all the skills and contacts you've built up over the years.
Now that's a good item to add to an already sarcastically-good and comprehensive list. Definitely the top 11 things people should make sure they don't do for their next mergers.
Scott - I love this. Since employes are the major assets of most companies, the competitor was able to effectively steal the acquisition right out from under the company that did it.
These days, employees, rather than factories and other capital assets, are the major assets of most companies. Alienating employees is a sure way to turn an acquisition into a paper victory at best.
I've been noticing a proliferation of social and mobile companies lately..ones that I would think would be gobbled up normally or not even be taken public.
I actually am glad if this happens (no merger) since I like to buy stocks in the sub-$10 range but half the time it seems like some Elephant comes into the room and kicks down the price and then buys it up before any small investor gets a chance to realize success (or failure, but that's part of the game).
While Google hasn't bought anyone significantly lately, there have been a number of M&As of note, like VMware and Nicira, or a number of Cisco and IBM acquisitions over the summer and fall. And let's not forget Instagram and Yammer -- billion dollar deals. So while we haven't seen the go-go days of the dot-com boom, there is a lot happening.
To paraphrase the great CBS New York newsman Don Hollenbeck, I wish to associate myself with everything my friend and colleague David Strom just said.
Let's see, my favorite merger blunder? It goes back a little ways, and involves a very large company that purchased an extremely popular producer, then subsequently gutted its staff... at the same time a rival producer was starting up. So, Way to Screw Up Your Merger #11: Lay off most or all of your acquired employees while your competitor (who, incidentally, was accruing funds to make the very same acquisition you made) has the resources, desire, and cash to hire them all and squeeze the lifeblood out of your new endeavor.
Moral of the story: Never acquire anything you're not ready and willing to own.
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Social media has been with us for a decade -- but employer policies and the law are anything but firm about the most appropriate usage of this powerful tool.
Businesses often struggle to decide which domain to use. When it comes to purchasing a domain name, you have plenty of extensions to choose from, ranging from .com and .net, to .me, and even .mobi. But which one should you pick?
I've been writing about how the next evolution of the Internet might just be an advertising revolution, and how corporate IT can stay involved as the enablers and providers of the technologies that make this possible.
In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M.
New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority is conducting a pilot test of digital kiosks to guide subway users to where they want to go more efficiently and at lower cost.
The whole Amazon.reader debate is a double-stupid. It's stupid to think that there's any e-book buyer who doesn't know Amazon's URL, and it was stupider to let ICANN launch the whole free-form TLD initiative to start with.
While NFC's original goal was to enhance mobile commerce applications, it is finding its way into a number of other uses, which is creating both opportunity as well as challenges for IT departments.
Enterprises would like to move to cloud computing but are hesitant because they are concerned about providers’ ability to secure company data. Here are some tips that help to ensure that if breaches occur, the business is not left holding the bag.
Edmunds separates customers into segments based on the info it collects on its site and from partners, and uses that to push out custom content, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
The automotive website uses propensity modeling to target ads and customer registration forms, said Brian Baron, director of business analytics for Edmunds.com, at Predictive Analytics Innovation Summit.
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M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
M2M: Rise of the Machines? Not Yet David Weldon In the 1970 science fiction thriller Colossus: The Forbin Project, two giant supercomputers from the United States and Soviet Union secretly join forces to take control of the collective nuclear might of the two countries. In the film, the two machines discover each other's existence, communicate back-and-forth, share their collective data, and cut their human creators out of the process. It is the ultimate example of machine-to-machine communications, or M2M. CLICK FOR MORE
