3 ms·

I really don't get why large corporations seemingly don't do more homework when trying to get into a new market. Especially if they buy a successful company to

I really don't get why large corporations seemingly don't do more homework when trying to get into a new market. Especially if they buy a successful company to do so, without doing any work figuring out why they're successful, nor rocking the boat. I worked at one of the largest IT companies here in Norway when it got sold to some international corporation. They drove it into the ground in less than 6 months, selling the tattered remains for scraps to our largest competitor. In my current job I've seen it multiple times with our competitors, where they're just a shadow of themselves after getting acquired by a large multinational. Good for us of course, we're now dominating our niche.

mschuster91 10mo ago
> I worked at one of the largest IT companies here in Norway when it got sold to some international corporation. They drove it into the ground in less than 6 months, selling the tattered remains for scraps to our largest competitor. That's intentional, corporate raiding (or by its legal name, leveraged buyouts and similar strategies). Load the purchased company up with debt to finance its own acquisition, take everything that's valuable (e.g. a specific contract, IP, "rockstar" employees - aka acquihire), sell off the husk to the highest bidder or send it off to bankruptcy. All you need is someone braindead (or desperate) enough to lend you money. When all you're looking at is one single thing of (relatively) stellar value, you don't need to invest in the rest.
- magicalhippo 10mo ago
  > That's intentional, corporate raiding (or by its legal name, leveraged buyouts and similar strategies). But that's not what they did as far as I know. They just implemented some braindead policies that caused income to grind to a halt overnight, because those policies worked so well in the other countries ther were in. The good employees jumped ship early. I had a limited contract which didn't get renewed due to hiring freeze.

mschuster91 10mo ago

> I worked at one of the largest IT companies here in Norway when it got sold to some international corporation. They drove it into the ground in less than 6 months, selling the tattered remains for scraps to our largest competitor. That's intentional, corporate raiding (or by its legal name, leveraged buyouts and similar strategies). Load the purchased company up with debt to finance its own acquisition, take everything that's valuable (e.g. a specific contract, IP, "rockstar" employees - aka acquihire), sell off the husk to the highest bidder or send it off to bankruptcy. All you need is someone braindead (or desperate) enough to lend you money. When all you're looking at is one single thing of (relatively) stellar value, you don't need to invest in the rest.

magicalhippo 10mo ago
> That's intentional, corporate raiding (or by its legal name, leveraged buyouts and similar strategies). But that's not what they did as far as I know. They just implemented some braindead policies that caused income to grind to a halt overnight, because those policies worked so well in the other countries ther were in. The good employees jumped ship early. I had a limited contract which didn't get renewed due to hiring freeze.