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In the Wake of Mergers and Acquisitions
By Bob Kaehms, Editor in Chief
What a wacky dream I had the other night. I was scaling a mountain while strolling through an amusement park. Backgrounds were superimposed. Bobsleds jetted past. Cups and saucers whizzed by, shaking my grip. Other thrill rides perched precariously among the cliffs. When Dumbo flew by for the third time I was startled awake.
During those brief moments of insight following dreams it became clear. A multinational corporation bought Disneyland and an accountant, relying on a spreadsheet, had determined the park was on pricey real estate.
"Since the park's core business is not real estate, and since most visitors spend much of their time on, or in line for, the Matterhorn, we'll consolidate. Put the entire park on the mountain and sell off the surrounding grounds. The money we save can be used to prop up our sagging profits at Sea World," reasoned the accountant.
So it is with mergers and acquisitions.
Now, I know that the Walt Disney Company wouldn't do anything so foolish, and I don't think they own Sea World, but something about all these recent mergers has gotten under my skin.
Maybe it's because our parent company moved our office from the suburbs to the big city to make room for a new acquisition, or because my local ISP was recently acquired causing my service to deteriorate that's got me thinking about this. Or was it Jamie Zawinski's resignation from Mozilla.o
