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If you're reading this, you'll be missed! Your books have got my SO and I started on our careers in mobile; they have just the right mix of code, background con

by juris 2y ago

If you're reading this, you'll be missed! Your books have got my SO and I started on our careers in mobile; they have just the right mix of code, background context, and chutzpah-- as compared to the 'picture books' that you might find in B&N these days. Thanks for everything; your voice will be missed. Digging a little further into the Glassdoor reviews, it's likely that Stellar Elements acquired them for their client base and drove them into the ground due to poor management. Most of the BNR reviews rank positive, but the latest of them complain about the acquisition, and the Stellar Elements reviews have always ranked low.

ChuckMcM 2y ago
Interesting genealogy; Stellar Elements was a non descript B2B consulting firm with no real footprint (like one of many) then gets bought by Amdocs[1], an Israeli company HQ in St Louis? in 2017, at which point SE goes on an acquisition spree, picking of five companies, Ora Interactive, Cibo Global, then BNR, then ADK Group then Roam Digital. Cibo was basically a PR firm, BNR actually had a product, and the other three were IT consulting services. Looking at various news stories and social media they seem to have tried to synthesize some sort of contract services/training thing. Given that BNR has a huge person-to-person product and they were acquired in June of 2020, I would speculate that the pandemic killed their training business and they couldn't make payroll[2] and sold themselves off to SE as 'rescue'. In my experience acquisitions that happen where the two options are 'get acquired' or 'go out of business' the power imbalance is really super significant. The acquired company gets basically zero say in how they should run their own business. With luck it is aligned with the acquirer, sometimes they acquirer just wants some staff and maybe some IP and the rest is just leftovers. I agree the GlassDoor reviews read like an acquiring company that doesn't care about people they acquired. Often there are retention bonuses for people that are needed to extract the desired parts so I hopefully some of that happened. It is really sad to me as I think application specific training resources are something big companies don't really do any more and the market is hit or miss with regard to combined in person + reference material. It sounds like I would have enjoyed going to their iOs development class. [1] Amdocs' web site is awash in "GenAI" buzzwordiness. Which makes me wonder if it was all crypto before :-). I don't know anything about the company really since I've never talked to anyone who works there but man, that website, really throws off a lot of red flags for me. [2] Although this seems odd given the PPP program but its just a guess right?
- pianoben 2y ago
  I used to work right next door to Amdocs, and knew a few people who worked there. It's a legitimate business, or at least it was back in the mid-aughts, and worked on "digital transformation" projects for legacy BigCos. Bummer about GenAI, but then again it seems like every company these days feels the need to festoon themselves like clowns.
robocat 2y ago
> likely that Stellar Elements [] drove them into the ground due to poor management Why make up stories unless you know the cause? I imagine it is just as likely BNR was doing poorly, sold out, and continued to do poorly.

by juris 2y ago

ChuckMcM 2y ago

Interesting genealogy; Stellar Elements was a non descript B2B consulting firm with no real footprint (like one of many) then gets bought by Amdocs[1], an Israeli company HQ in St Louis? in 2017, at which point SE goes on an acquisition spree, picking of five companies, Ora Interactive, Cibo Global, then BNR, then ADK Group then Roam Digital. Cibo was basically a PR firm, BNR actually had a product, and the other three were IT consulting services. Looking at various news stories and social media they seem to have tried to synthesize some sort of contract services/training thing. Given that BNR has a huge person-to-person product and they were acquired in June of 2020, I would speculate that the pandemic killed their training business and they couldn't make payroll[2] and sold themselves off to SE as 'rescue'. In my experience acquisitions that happen where the two options are 'get acquired' or 'go out of business' the power imbalance is really super significant. The acquired company gets basically zero say in how they should run their own business. With luck it is aligned with the acquirer, sometimes they acquirer just wants some staff and maybe some IP and the rest is just leftovers. I agree the GlassDoor reviews read like an acquiring company that doesn't care about people they acquired. Often there are retention bonuses for people that are needed to extract the desired parts so I hopefully some of that happened. It is really sad to me as I think application specific training resources are something big companies don't really do any more and the market is hit or miss with regard to combined in person + reference material. It sounds like I would have enjoyed going to their iOs development class. [1] Amdocs' web site is awash in "GenAI" buzzwordiness. Which makes me wonder if it was all crypto before :-). I don't know anything about the company really since I've never talked to anyone who works there but man, that website, really throws off a lot of red flags for me. [2] Although this seems odd given the PPP program but its just a guess right?

pianoben 2y ago
I used to work right next door to Amdocs, and knew a few people who worked there. It's a legitimate business, or at least it was back in the mid-aughts, and worked on "digital transformation" projects for legacy BigCos. Bummer about GenAI, but then again it seems like every company these days feels the need to festoon themselves like clowns.

robocat 2y ago

> likely that Stellar Elements [] drove them into the ground due to poor management Why make up stories unless you know the cause? I imagine it is just as likely BNR was doing poorly, sold out, and continued to do poorly.