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IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal)IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal)Posted Apr 6, 2009 16:26 UTC (Mon) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648)Parent article: IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal)
It seems that these "change of control" contracts have a self-destruct effect on the corporation; while they promote loyalty amongst the senior employees, they also have the side-effect of making the corporation less appealing in a merger/takeover situation. If IBM had consummated the Sun takeover, then a lot of executives (and talent) could have left with big sums of money. Now that the deal is dead, it is possible (though not likely) that Sun could collapse into itself. Just my observations from the visitors gallery...
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IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal) Posted Apr 6, 2009 17:34 UTC (Mon) by me@jasonclinton.com (subscriber, #52701) [Link]
> it is possible (though not likely) that Sun could collapse into itself
Almost like some kind of (wait for it) ... supernova?! Oh, the Sun puns never get old.
IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal) Posted Apr 6, 2009 18:00 UTC (Mon) by noahm (subscriber, #40155) [Link]
I don't think Sun has sufficient mass to generate a supernova event at this point. Sun's demise won't be so dramatic. It may go the way of the red giant, expanding one last time in some futile attempt to draw some last attention to itself, only to have most of its remaining mass evaporate away. Left behind will be a tiny chunk of a company with no significant output, just a mass of intellectual property. What happens to this IP portfolio will be of interest.
IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal) Posted Apr 6, 2009 19:35 UTC (Mon) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]
So Sun is an SGI-type star^Wcompany, then?
IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal) Posted Apr 7, 2009 17:09 UTC (Tue) by jd (guest, #26381) [Link]
So a nova or some really nasty solar(is) flares, then? If Games Workshop bought Sun, it could decay into a White Dwarf.
Accidental pun Posted Apr 8, 2009 3:39 UTC (Wed) by pr1268 (subscriber, #24648) [Link] Almost like some kind of (wait for it) ... supernova?! Oh, the Sun puns never get old. I promise that pun was an accident. Honest. It is kind of convenient, though. :)
IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal) Posted Apr 7, 2009 3:09 UTC (Tue) by iabervon (subscriber, #722) [Link]
Generally, such controls are intended to make the corporation less appealing in a merger/takeover situation, as a way of preventing hostile takeovers. Of course, anything that works against a hostile takeover will work against a non-hostile takeover, because anything that could be undone in order to prepare for a merger could also be undone upon a hostile takeover.
And long-lived companies with volatile stock prices in a market segment prone to bubbles tend to worry more about hostile takeovers (some dotcom startup raising a ton of money, and deciding to buy them some day when the stock is low and there's a lot outstanding) than how they'd do in a merger with a company they want to merge with.
IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal) Posted Apr 8, 2009 15:12 UTC (Wed) by Wol (guest, #4433) [Link]
I worked for a company that pulled a poison-pill trick like this. But it was a "this poison wears off" trick. Basically, under UK law, if staff are let go they HAVE to be given a pay-off.
This company I worked for wanted to upset a hostile take-over, because it knew the predator was an asset stripper and wanted to get rid of a lot of the staff. So the company unilaterally modified all employment contracts from the statutory minimum to "one (or it might have been two!) month's pay per year's service". All of a sudden, the cost to the predator of sacking staff doubled or more ...
But the change was only to then-current contracts, so a few years on and a bit of staff turnover later, the poison pill started wearing off.
Cheers,
IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal) Posted Apr 9, 2009 14:26 UTC (Thu) by GreyWizard (guest, #1026) [Link] anything that could be undone in order to prepare for a merger could also be undone upon a hostile takeover Why couldn't the contracts have clauses to permit the company to cancel the benefits with a few months notice as long as no change of control occurs in that time? (Obviously Sun didn't think that far ahead in this case, but you seem to be arguing that it's not even possible.)
IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal) Posted Apr 7, 2009 18:05 UTC (Tue) by Nelson (subscriber, #21712) [Link] These so-called "bitter pills" or "poison pills" are often used for leverage in negotiation. It's curious, IBM buying Sun maybe a good exit for Sun. Without IBM buying them, at the very least due to the poison pills, the cost probably went down to any other suitors. I'm sure some people within Sun think they'll be just fine on their own but that is getting harder to see. From the folks I've known working there, they've already started to dramatically erode the staff on a lot of projects. It sounds like Sun was trying to sink the hook, they wanted the deal to happen, just couldn't deal with a lower price or something else. I wouldn't be entirely surprised if they crawled back to IBM but they'll have to deal with IBM's terms.
IBM Lets Sun Set (Linux Journal) Posted Apr 8, 2009 0:13 UTC (Wed) by rahvin (subscriber, #16953) [Link]
If they go back the offer will likely be substantially reduced in price. Probably not higher than current stock price at the time and it wouldn't surprise me if it was lower as IBM invested substantially in this negotiation and were essentially brushed off.
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