<history>Memories of Duquesne Systems/Legent vary depending on where you were. I was a developer at DUQN when the merge w/Morino occurred.
<rant>The consensus of the folks in PGH was that it was a disaster. Because of the generous options Glen gave out, we were all stockholders and had and expressed opinions. The Morino people were good and competent people. But DUQN had been growing as fast as it could for 5-10 yrs. The only thing gained from the merger were additional salespersons, who found the "small" "cheap" DUQN products an easy sale relative to the "large expensive" product(s) they had been selling. The Morino products suffered sales declines, partly because they were such hard sells relative to the DUQN products. The two HQ's were not the only divide. Pgh was jeans and t-shirts and phone list in first name order - an echo of the blue-collar town Pgh is. VA was ties and phone list in last name order. No hostility, just a chasm. The attitude of the Pgh folks to Joe Henson may be indicated by a story. There was a communication campaign called "tell it to Joe" accompanied by a frontal picture. There was a parody in Pgh with a side picture called "stick it in Joe's ear." The BST merger brought more product to sell but little synergy with the other products. John Burton however was the leader of a team, including the chief tech officer, who decided 1) mainframes were dying and the concentration should be on Unix and 2) the future market for mainframe software would be only large firms. Unfortunately the business model then in use depended on the reliable "maintenance income" stream. The down turn in earnings was directly a result of that strategy. The buyout proceeded from there. By the time of the Goal merger the die was cast. There was possibility of synergy of product, but little was done other than some obvious product mergers. Jerre Stead negotiated a great buyout by CA - stock price at historical high, one month severance for each full year of employment plus one. All options bought out. So good we now know CA had to cook their books to justify it. Had CA not done it, it appeared Legent could have competed quite successfully with CA. Never heard a bad word about Jerre in Pgh. Before the merger, CA had each prospective employee fill out a questionaire. Last question was "Do you want to work for CA?" Amazing number of people said no. Riff day was interesting. Some CA people got very short notice they were going to do terminations. The one who did mine was a wreck to the point of tears. It took a full day. </rant> Working in Pgh for DUQN was the best work experience of my life. Best people I ever worked with - ranks ahead of Oak Ridge National Laboratory. My second last supervisor (also named Glen) was the best supervisor I ever had. (His brother is a dinosaur who visits this club.) Glen the CEO ties with the retiring CEO of the current parent company. Would have stayed. TPX was the best software I ever worked on, including all the stuff I wrote myself. Wish I had the source. No regrets. Requiescat in pace IBM Mainframe Discussion List <IBM-MAIN@BAMA.UA.EDU> wrote on 8/4/2006 9:55:37 AM: <snip> > Could have been the phrase "merger of equals" was coined with the > Morino/Duquesne combining forces > and only until Goal Systems came into the picture did anyone really > see that having to company > Headquarters (Pittsburgh and McLean, VA) was ill-conceived and > somewhat misleading. Took the likes > of Dave Wetmore from Goal Systems (finally, a bean-counter comes on > board), John Burton from BST > (Endevor), Joe Henson from Prime Computer, and others to grow the > company very quickly. And the VC > guys (General Atlantic Partners, from the Morino founding days) had > confidence that it would > eventually work out, and so they didn't mettle in the mess of > personality differences and dart-board > like attempts at various sales/marketing strategies over the next 5 > years. So, in walks Jerre > Stead, and in less than a year (after meeting Sanjay), LEGENT > disappears, consumed by the well-oiled > acquisition machine of CA (cash buyout at $47 dollars a share -- IRS > made out much better than some > on this deal). That was 16 years ago this month!! <snip> ----------------------------------------- The information contained in this communication (including any attachments hereto) is confidential and is intended solely for the personal and confidential use of the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. The information may also constitute a legally privileged confidential communication. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient or an agent responsible for delivering it to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that you have received this communication in error and that any review, dissemination, copying, or unauthorized use of this information, or the taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this information is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by e-mail, and delete the original message. Thank you ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
