December 3, 1998
Dear Everyone:
Nervous times around the
water cooler these days.
Merger mania is in the air.
A couple of months back, it was announced the
British XXX (BX) would be acquiring “Arrivederci”.
We learned later that Company was, in fact, angling for
“Arrivederci” itself. But BX
had a bigger hook.
This week, “Excellence” announced that it was buying “Mediocracy”. In other words, the biggest fish are eating the medium-sized fish and everyone is wondering, “Who’s next?” Company used to be billed as “third largest”, although no one ever explained to me how this size was determined. Number of employees? Amount of reserves? Sales per quarter? ROCE? (Return On Capital Invested. I do know some things.)
But right now, we’re all feeling an awful lot like
a pretty small fish. And no
one wants to get gobbled up.
What’s interesting about all this is that it’s all
coming full circle. Back in
1911, the
Sherman Anti-Trust Act was used to
force John D’s, XXX Company to break up into 34 separate
companies. Many of these
companies were unable to survive in an open and free market.
They couldn’t handle true competition and promptly went belly up.
But a few managed to hang on.
Standard XXX of New York grew into “Mediocracy”.
Standard XXX of Ohio eventually became BX.
(Don’t ask me how an Ohio company ends up with a name like
“British XXX”; but I watched it happen back when it meant changing the
labels on all those xxx files.)
Standard XXX of California finally changed its name to Company
Corporation.
And Eastern States Standard XXX (ESSX) eventually
became “Excellence” International, or, as it’s called in the industry,
“’Excellence’ Intergalactic”.
(By the way, a few years ago, BX bought all of “Mediocracy’s”
offices.)
If the latest merger actually goes through (it
still has to weather an
FTC
exam), I figure old John D. will be laughing all the way to the
Celestial Bank.
In other news...
I really and truly did watch some of those video
tapes I had made of the
Records
Management Software presentations while I was on vacation.
How’s that for dedication to duty?
The truth is, I wanted to go and see
A Bug’s
Life, but the line at the theater went all the way around the
building and I knew I would never get inside.
So I figured it was God’s way of saying, “Get some work done.”
Maybe next weekend.
I did manage to take in three movies while I was
off work.
Antz
is an animated feature about an ant named “Z”, played with angst by
Woody Allen.
He’s unsure about his place in life and winds up going on an
adventure with a real princess (Sharon
Stone). It’s cute and
it’s fun trying to guess whose voices go with which character.
Anne
Bancroft as the queen ant is easy; but that’s because there aren’t
that many female roles (as usual).
Also saw
Pleasantville. Very
much a movie of the ‘90’s.
The gimmick is that a couple of modern teenagers get zapped into a ‘50’s
world based on a classic sitcom.
They become black-and-white.
But their presence soon causes other characters to blossom into
Technicolor.
It touches, ever so lightly, on themes of embracing change,
prejudices versus valuing diversity, and book-burning.
Also, soda fountains.
Skipable.
Elizabeth,
about the
16th Century queen of England, is filled with court intrigue and
very difficult to follow, even if you’ve read as many books about the
subject as I have. Or maybe
because I have. I kept
trying to place characters that were probably composites of real
figures. It covers the first
15 years of her reign, so that’s a lot to present in under three hours.
Nevertheless, expect it to show up on some of
Oscar’s lists
next year.
If you have to choose among the three, go with the
little guy (Z).
Love, as always,
Pete
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