Small IT Company Takeovers

**Lucifer Box** · 9 May 2006, 16:50

No one is indispensable and all those disgruntled permies who think they are are about to find out how wrong they are. Now if they had put their money where their mouths are and invested in the company themselves they could expect a handout, as it is why should they expect to get anything? I assume they have been adequately rewarded for their labour.

It might be a "nice" thing to do, but would you distribute your proceeds to your staff if you were bought out? I suspect not. After all, who's taken all the risk?

**The Lone Gunman** · 9 May 2006, 16:53

It does happen, but it depends on the guys who own the business.
A firm I worked for sold out to a big hitter. The two owners paid substantial sums to the five staff who had built the business the rest of us got taken out for a very nice dinner and drinkies. None of us felt bitter.

**BlasterBates** · 9 May 2006, 17:02

...and without the janitor, bin man, dinner ladies, plumbers etc etc who are all vital to the company, you would starve to death or suffocate under a pile of rubbish. What will they get ?

**cojak** · 9 May 2006, 18:55

This is a lesson in life, Ladies and Gents. I would only join a start up buiness as a permie if I was able to put a bit of capital forward and given shares in return. Otherwise just pay me the day rate...

**TheMonkey** · 9 May 2006, 19:13

Originally posted by cojak

This is a lesson in life, Ladies and Gents. I would only join a start up buiness as a permie if I was able to put a bit of capital forward and given shares in return. Otherwise just pay me the day rate...

Or as a colleage of mine found out, shares are absolutely useless when the company doesn't profit (as so many are engineered not to these days).

**Fungus** · 9 May 2006, 19:33

Originally posted by cojak

This is a lesson in life, Ladies and Gents. I would only join a start up buiness as a permie if I was able to put a bit of capital forward and given shares in return. Otherwise just pay me the day rate...

The last client I was with was bought by Thales. Then the directors staged a management buy out in association with Lehman Brothers. The directors told the staff they would get substantial sums of money, enough to buy a new car each. John Lehman (a once big figure in the US state department) flew in from the US and sincerely told the permies how much he cared about them. Then he went home and not long later the client was sold for a fat profit to an American company. The directors made nice tidy sums of money and then were kicked out by the new owners. The permies got no substantial sums of money. In fact they got no extra money. Or even annual pay rises. Instead every three months 5-10 permies were laid off. And they were given the statutary minimum redundancy payments.

I've seen similar to the above at several sites, sometimes as a permie.

When a manager says they care about you, it means they are about to feck you over, and make a nice earner for themselves.

**cojak** · 9 May 2006, 19:46

Well you have to perform due diligence as well...

**Gunnery Sergeant Hartman** · 9 May 2006, 21:43

Hmmmm, either I can give you a payrise or I can fire you, make all the other people in your team work harder and earn a bonus for cutting costs. Decisions, decisions...

**threaded** · 10 May 2006, 05:10

Originally posted by TheMonkey

Or as a colleage of mine found out, shares are absolutely useless when the company doesn't profit (as so many are engineered not to these days).

Yeah, I contracted at a firm in Derby and they stopped paying the permies overtime, said they were professionals, and professionals don't get overtime, and put them onto Profit Related Pay. The permies all thought it was wonderful, as the company had always made a tidy profit. I just started laughing (until told off).

Year later: oh dear, sorry chaps, company has not made any profit...

threaded in "Didn't even need the time machine to see that coming" mode.

Small IT Company Takeovers