Stupid Executives

[legion]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060918/ap_on_bi_ge/gm_ford

Have the lessons of HP/Compaq, Daimler-Chrysler, Compaq/DEC, the entire banking industry, etc. gone on deaf ears?

Merging two troubled companies does not make one strong company, it just doubles the number of problems (or maybe the problems have "synergy"...effectively tripling the number of problems). It's like two alcoholic codependents thinking that getting married and having kids will solve all of their problems...

[widebody911]

Originally posted by legion
Merging two troubled companies does not make one strong company,

Yes, but it makes for larger executive paychecks; all else is irrelevant.

[techweenie]

FWIW, in the tech industry, HP/Compaq is considered to have been a very smart move.

[kaisen]

We will more likely see an 'alliance' than a 'merger'. Sharing the little bits of a car that you don't see will have a positive financial effect, but won't dilute the brands.

[widebody911]

Originally posted by techweenie
FWIW, in the tech industry, HP/Compaq is considered to have been a very smart move.

By whom?

[legion]

The Fiorina Fiasco a "very smart move"?

[Par911]

Originally posted by widebody911
Yes, but it makes for larger executive paychecks; all else is irrelevant.

Werd x 20,000,000

[techweenie]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4988682.stm

[legion]

Yes, they cut payroll to make this quarters numbers. Short-term gain for long-term pain. I remember when Lucent started doing this 5 or 6 years ago...and it's worked so well for them.

[Overpaid Slacker]

Originally posted by techweenie
FWIW, in the tech industry, HP/Compaq is considered to have been a very smart move.

Not in the I-banking industry... this was a case study at a seminar I went to that set forth, in excruciating detail, exactly how many things (all of them) had to go exactly how "right" (completely) in order to result in the synergies that were promised.

Certainly not that taking risks is "bad", but there wasn't enough realistic upside to be realized from taking the risk to make it worth taking.

"The only bad risk is the one you're not compensated for taking."

JP

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Originally posted by techweenie
FWIW, in the tech industry, HP/Compaq is considered to have been a very smart move.

That depends on whether you're interested in good engineering, quality, reliability, security, and research and innovation--or good quarterly reports making jellybeans.

[dd74]

It didn't work for Time-Warner/AOL, i.e. the worst merger in the history of business.

[legion]

Originally posted by dd74
It didn't work for Time-Warner/AOL, i.e. the worst merger in the history of business.

That's another good one!

I'm convinced the only mergers that make sense are when two small or mid-size companies merge. When two behemouths merge, it usually takes years to sort out what really needs to happen, and by that time it's too late.

Case in point: Bank of America. They are still running the original software that each bank they bought up originally ran. Sure, they've put a screen-scraper front end on it so it looks the same, but it doesn't work.

It will be DECADES before the mega-banks are running one back-end software package....

[ruf-porsche]

Originally posted by techweenie
FWIW, in the tech industry, HP/Compaq is considered to have been a very smart move.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Originally posted by widebody911
By whom?

Dell

[Porsche-O-Phile]

If GM and Ford can individually lose billions of dollars, just THINK of how many TRILLIONS of dollars they could lose together! Sweet!

[EdT82SC]

Originally posted by ruf-porsche
Originally posted by techweenie
FWIW, in the tech industry, HP/Compaq is considered to have been a very smart move.
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Dell

Except that Dell has been losing market share to HP recently. The consumer PCs HP sells under the Compaq name undercut Dell on price in part by using the AMD processors. HP has been so succesful doing this that Dell is selling AMD PCs now so they can compete on price with HP.