Update... May 15, 2006

Good afternoon friends and family!

I had a great weekend folks, it was restful and relaxing. Sort of a kick back weekend, I wish I had more of those. So let’s just look at today. This is going to be short… since the day aint over yet.


It is Monday, May 15th to be specific. What is the significance of this day? Anyone… anyone… Bueller? Is it the “Ides of May”? Yep, but that isn’t it. Is it PayDay! Yep, but that isn’t it. Is it Martha’s one year anniversary of when she started here at SSA? Yep, but that isn’t it. Give up? Let me tell you about it…

Well, today I walked into work thinking, “Cool, I have been here a year! I made it!” You don’t feel like such a newbie after a year. You feel like you have solidified you place in the team, made your mark so to speak. Found your niche and you are settling in, the nest is feathered let’s make ourselves at home! Well, I log into my trusty email and what is the first email that pops into my inbox. A notification. What could this notification possibly be of? Are they giving us all raises or possibly a day off? No… couldn’t be anything good like that. I open the email and the first sentence says, “We are excited to announce that SSA Global has been acquired by Infor”. Who the heck is Infor? And why did NO ONE have any idea this was even out there?

Ok, I have been through an acquisition before. I worked for nearly six years for Allegiance Telecom, and we all knew the acquisition was coming. Heck we even knew who was bidding on us. We knew that the changing of the guard, and the letterhead was coming. It made it a lot easier to swallow when you had people in the break room saying “Allegiance, its what’s for dinner” It came as no surprise that after months of due diligence Qwest came to the table with an offer and then XO came swooping in to gobble us up. Over night you went from being part of Allegiance Telecom to being part of this made up “All-XO” branding stuff where they tried to make you feel good about the fact that they were throwing all of your code out the door, but not before they bad mouthed it from here to Timbucktu. (Ok, I was bitter then, but I am better now)

But at least you had time to deal with it… you knew you were at least on the tracks, and that the train was coming. But not this time, this was like the bomb out of no where. It was like Pearl Harbor, everyone was stunned and absolutely walking around like they didn’t know which way to turn. Or if they should laugh, cry, or just go back to their cubes and code. What do you do? I came in today, expecting it to be the start of my next year at SSA to find out, I don’t work for SSA anymore. I work for Infor.

So, now I submit… What else could happen today? I promise you, if I walked out into the garage, got in my car and had a piano fall on it… I wouldn’t be surprised.

Peace, love, and acquisitions,
Martha