Acxiom Agrees To Be Acquired

Posted on May 16, 2007
Filed Under General |

I guess you could say it’s been an exciting evening? I found out around 6:30pm cst, that the company that I’ve worked for, for the last 18 years has agreed to be acquired by 2 investment firms. The plans are to take the company private.

My thoughts? Still not sure to be honest? I can’t say it came as a huge surprise….but there is still the “shock factor”. Kinda like the relative that you knew could pass away any day, but when it actually happened, there’s that weird feeling of relief and surprise.

Lets face it, as a technology company, I’ve/we’ve seen our share of changes. There have been some really awesome times in the early days and some pretty tough times over the last 6 to 8 years. To keep pace with the times, I always expected there would be change. You grew accustomed to it. And with an earlier offer from ValueAct, you knew that there was always the possibility that something was in the works.

Still….when it actually happens, you’re like, “gee….the company that I’ve worked for most of my adult life, is now changing hands”. Who are these new people, these new companies, these “investment firms”, and what do they have in store? While it’s still early, you have to think that changing hands means changing lots of other things as well. Investment firms don’t buy businesses because they like the name or think the culture is cute. They buy companies like ours, to make money. Of course I’m sure we’ll see lots of emails about “business as usual” and “everything’s rosy”, but is it every really “business as usual” after a buyout? I guess we’ll see, but I’m not holding my breath.

Keep me/us in your thoughts. Please share this site address with a friend. Looks like I’ll need all the support I can get.