I was saddened by this story: MSNBC - Oracle to cut 5,000 jobs in PeopleSoft takeover. I've been bought and sold four times - and felt like chattel in each case. I have a colleague from a previous job who's worked for PeopleSoft. I hope she'll be OK.
I was part of ROLM in the 1980s before IBM bought the company. I was still there four years later when Siemens bought the business from IBM. Many of us knew the rumors circulating. I'd seen a neatly dressed man in a European-tailored suit sitting in the cafeteria with a pad and a pen. He'd occasionally make a mark on a page. I can only guess he was monitoring how long employees stayed there.
When the deal was finally made public the biggest impact was on employees who came from other IBM divisions and who had been promised the right to return to IBM divisions after working at ROLM. I still recall twenty year IBM veterans bawling in their offices after the announcement. IBM subsequently allowed many of them to return to IBM, defusing a potentially nasty legal battle.
The MSNBC report echoes so much of the loss that I felt on having a well-loved work environment suddenly stripped from me. I wish the PeopleSoft folks well.
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