101–110 of 146 posts
That's a very good point. I wish it were Microsoft, Facebook, or Google. But IBM is not the worst case scenario.
If I was talking to Red Hat about a job - and I just submitted a resume before this announcement - I'd break it off.
Having been in Chris' shoes (being acquired by IBM) I found the reactions of different people in the company most interesting. Several people had the same sort of "Everything is different now that IBM owns us." reaction, but if you unpack that, the reality is a bit different. For a company like Redhat I can't imagine it will be largely changed in the first couple of years at least, so for that period of time you will…
I've worked for companies that got acquired and also acquired other companies. Year 1 is usually nothing and things stay the same unless there is some serious fat that needed trimming. The interesting years are 2 and 3. That's when the parent company tries to optimize things (e.g. streamline the sales force), create synergies, etc and you start seeing the changes. Depending on where you are in the acquired company, i…
I've been part of 6 separate buy-out/merger/acquisitions (from both angles). In year 3 of current one. The event, whether you are acquired or acquiree, presents significant and unique opportunities to move vertically and/or horizontally to improve your situation. If you're sitting there wondering about job security then you (a) didn't have job security in the first place; (b) are wasting everyone's time, including yo…
Having been in Chris' shoes (being acquired by IBM) I found the reactions of different people in the company most interesting. Several people had the same sort of "Everything is different now that IBM owns us." reaction, but if you unpack that, the reality is a bit different. For a company like Redhat I can't imagine it will be largely changed in the first couple of years at least, so for that period of time you will…
When has this ever been the prerogative of a multinational for-profit corporation?
With Oracle/Sun it was pretty inverted...the first year was a huge cash infusion, and if anything Sun hardware projects had greater potential than before. And yet, within 5-6 years the entire hardware division imploded. And, meta-comment: this site layout is frustrating on mobile, the text runs off the left/right edges slightly and it refuses to allow pinch/zoom. Sites really need to stop writing code to intentionall…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> IBM is just another company trying to do things to make the world a better place Yeah. That’s why they helped the Nazis and invented ILMT.
No idea why you are being downvoted. IBMs actions during WW2 are well known. [1][2] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_and_the_Holocaust [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_during_World_War_II
Oracle and IBM both do it.
https://blogs.flexera.com/elo/2016/02/higher-costs-for-being...
https://www.businessinsider.com/oracle-customer-explains-aud...
I've worked for companies that got acquired and also acquired other companies. Year 1 is usually nothing and things stay the same unless there is some serious fat that needed trimming. The interesting years are 2 and 3. That's when the parent company tries to optimize things (e.g. streamline the sales force), create synergies, etc and you start seeing the changes. Depending on where you are in the acquired company, i…
I've been part of 6 separate buy-out/merger/acquisitions (from both angles). In year 3 of current one. The event, whether you are acquired or acquiree, presents significant and unique opportunities to move vertically and/or horizontally to improve your situation. If you're sitting there wondering about job security then you (a) didn't have job security in the first place; (b) are wasting everyone's time, including yo…
If you are better paid than the existing employees it's actually more likely that your salary will be frozen until it "harmonises" with them. You are also unlikely to have the contacts at the acquirer for an interesting lateral move, even if its permitted in the terms of the acquisition, I think the last time we were told there would be no internal transfers for the first two years.
> after some consideration, I’ve decided to share my thoughts as a narrative timeline. Trust me when say that I have given this format considerable thought. It is likely the safest way (regulatory-wise) to deliver my thoughts on the topic. Does anyone have any idea what regulations might impinge on Chris's choice of format for sharing his thoughts?
None. People who learnt that their companies are being acquired via public news services are not in possession of any information the SEC would consider "insider".
Having been in Chris' shoes (being acquired by IBM) I found the reactions of different people in the company most interesting. Several people had the same sort of "Everything is different now that IBM owns us." reaction, but if you unpack that, the reality is a bit different. For a company like Redhat I can't imagine it will be largely changed in the first couple of years at least, so for that period of time you will…
"What will be different will be access to a company that has been running for over 100 years and evolved over that time, at all levels. Facilities all around the world. Access to some of the scientists that you may have only read their papers but now can chat with via slack." I have never seen this materialize in any big company. Different departments may as well be different companies. They never talk to each other.
I've pinged many folks over Sametime (predecessor to Slack) just by having their name, you could then lookup their Sametime Id.
Most of the time it was over simple details, i.e "Hey, I see you're the author of this RedBook. In Chapter Foo Paragraph Bar, did you really mean FooBar or BazBaz?"
But hey, details are everything in our industry.
It was really nice to get the answer straight from the source, no matter which continent they were on. Anecdotal, but wanted to provide a counterpoint.