Living Through Mergers and Acquisitions

Changes in corporate structures--though disruptive--reflect a company's increasing need for responsiveness and agility. But all change isn't bad, just uncomfortable. The silver lining in the clouds is the future.

by Tets Maniwa

As you can see from the publisher's letter this month, the management of Integrated System Design has changed. This is the second change for us this year, the first occurring when Miller Freeman, Inc. bought the Verecom Group, which published Integrated System Design , and the second happening now as a part of the changes resulting from MFI's acquisition of CMP. It's turning out to be a lot easier to write about industry consolidation, mergers, and corporate takeovers--such as Philips buying VLSI Technology and then selling its programmable logic division to Xilinx--than to actually live through them. According to Mike Volpi, vice president of business development at Cisco Systems, acquisitions are one way to get fast-track silicon in the rapidly changing data communications industry as well as in any other fast-moving area in electronics. The constantly shifting landscape of the electronics industry, however, requires corresponding changes in corporate structures to meet the requirements of the market.

With all change--especially those changes out of your control--we all develop feelings of fear, uncertainty, and some puzzlement on one hand, wonder and possibly relief on the other. Are we staying or going? Moving to another location or staying here? Any changes in our jobs? Do we still have jobs? The unsettled emotions and increased stress make the work more difficult. Because mergers and acquisitions happen at the corporate level and the implementation details get worked out in the operating units, the information is always incomplete, while management's answers to questions often create even more questions which, in turn, escalate doubts and concerns. The partial information transfer challenges the validity of many corporate traditions and group memories. And when the changes create conditions that cause people to leave, through layoffs or other actions, the loss of friends and co-workers reduces the level of enthusiasm for the work and increases the stress and uncertainty for the survivors of the corporate-level transformations. Are you going to stay?

Takeovers extend beyond the basics of new managers and corporate policies. The changes to infrastructure and chain of command inhibit the decision-making processes and confront everyone with new challenges. Simple transactions now require additional levels of sign-off or authorization, and existing budgets and plans may be invalidated. The changes in workflow make all the work go more slowly, even when workers aren't demoralized. The corporate and personal identities associated with the organization and the other people in the workplace become fluid and unstable, where before they were enduring and solid. Everything is unsettled.

Our managing editor Peggy Aycinena, who started after the first transition was in process, observes that change is a continuing presence in the workplace, but ever the optimist, she says that we'll get through all of the changes. Obviously, attitude and internal support assist in acclimating to the changes. Cooperation, open exchange of information, and trust in the organization and management ameliorate the otherwise oppressive conditions.

Although we have had some problems in going from a venture-funded startup to a small part of a large group within a very large media corporation, most of our problems have been fairly quickly resolved. Despite the litany of concerns, we really never got to a snafu (situation normal, all fouled up) or fubar (fouled up beyond all recognition) in either of the changes in the last eight months. Now we are looking forward to the synergies and potential interactions between ISD and the other publications in the new CMP group.

We are now a sibling organization with Electronic Engineering Times and retain our ties with Silicon Strategies . We will gain access to one of the best news organizations in the electronics press and will coordinate coverage with them. We actually started working with EE Times at DAC, where our editors contributed some short articles to the daily DACnet web feed. In addition to the direct interactions with EE Times , we are looking into possible collaboration with some of the other MFI publications. This type of interaction will not happen overnight, however. Synchronizing editorial calendars, for instance, is proving more difficult than docking the Space Shuttle with the Mir space station. Even as we watch the electronics industry and the electronics press become the embodiment of change at Internet speeds, we are reminded of the mixed curse and blessing--may you live in interesting times.

To voice an opinion on this or any other article in Integrated System Design, please e-mail your comments to jeff@isdmag.com.