Conway Out at PeopleSoft
I've always believed that ego plays as great a role as business in these high profile corporate takeovers. Craig Conway was once a protege of Larry Ellison at Oracle, then left to "run his own show" at PeopleSoft. I think not only did Ellison want to put a competitor out of business, but he wanted to grind up a personal rival in the process.
Apparently Conway himself was too focused on the personal battle and not enough on building the business. A good way to fend off unwanted suitors is to make money and keep the stockholders happy. He wasn't doing enough of that.
We sure don't have much of this kind of drama in the industrial automation business. There are always rumors involving Honeywell's automation business being for sale (I've heard them for more than 10 years), Siemens buying something, Invensys' stock and financial problems. But there are no duelling big egos publicly fighting it out that make for great stories. That's probably a good thing. Maybe we're focused on growing companies in this industry, rather than feeding egos.
PeopleSoft fires CEO Conway. Board cites "lack of confidence" in Craig Conway as software maker battles a hostile takeover. [CNET News.com]
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