HAs anyone worked for a big company that was 'bought out"?

[barkley]

our former neighbor worked for a large company here in california that was bought up by another nationaly owned company. a few months after the buy out there was "restructuring" and neighbor was told he could move to washington state or arizona or lose his job. he sells the house, moves the family...6 months later the new company declares bankruptcy for his division (apparantly this was the plan all the time-they wanted to eliminate regional competition and it was financialy advantagous for them to do it in this manner)-no severance, no benefits...

on the up side-he had sold his home for a good price here and had paid cash for his new home in arizona. he felt he was one of the lucky ones-had he stayed in california and lost his job he would have lost his home).

 

[tc]

Yep, Mountain Bell to US West to Qwest, and, so far, Stephen has kept his job. There were a ton of layoffs with each merger/buy out, but he seems to be safe. Layoffs of done by seniority and division and he has a lot. It's pretty stressful. Our stock did plummet with this last buyout from over $60 a share to less than $5. That really messed up some retirees accounts how had it all in company stock. We've been smart and diversify so we won't be hurting if Qwest goes under.

Good luck and keep your chin up. Prayers and pd from out west that all goes well.

 

[NCDisneyMom]

My whole family worked for a large pharmaceutical company...Mom, Dad, Sister and Uncle. I did summer interning there throught college, and was "guaranteed" a job there after I graduated, by the department I had been spending my summers with. My Dad & Uncle were in manufacturing, and my MMom and Sister were in the corporate headquarters. My Dad had been with them for about 35 years.

About a year before I graduated college, they were taken over by another company. Dad was forced into early retirement (he was basically told "Take this package, or risk being laid off with nothing"...so he took it). My Uncle was also forced into early retirement. My Mom and Sister were laid off (with severence), and the entire dept I was working with was laid off, so there went my post-college job.

In the end, though, it all worked out great. My Dad loves retirement. My Mom had enough severence that she did some temp work for awhile before my parents moved to another state for their retirement. My sister had enough severence that she was able to finish her last semester of college (she had been taking 1-2 courses per semester, at night) all at once, and ended up with a better job now that she had her degree. I'm not even sure what my Uncle did after that...we're not really close to him.

So, in a nutshell, it stunk at the time, but things did work out. Keep your chin up!!

 

[MOMTOCUTESTDOGEVER]

When our company was bought out, it took about a year before major changes started happening. The day that over 100 people were laid off the senior/executive/guy-high-up-there VP drove his Bentley to work. Their theme? "Double digit growth at any cost" The

I work for another company now that was bought out and it's incredible how good it is--benefits are better, pay is better, and I am proud to work for my new parent!

It's really a crap shoot--I hope things work out to your benefit.

 

[Jungle Skipper]

I was working for a television station and the company that owned us was bought out. Ended up losing my job in the mix of it all...saw lots of good people made redundant....it was sad. Best thing to ever happen to me!

Best wishes!
Jungle Josh

 

[bettyann29]

Yes I worked for a health insurance company that was bought and taken over by another company.. we knew that the company was being sold but was only told they were looking for a buyer.. one day we came into work adn they called an entire dept to the auditorium and told them right then that their services were no longer needed and handed out boxes when they left to go collect their belongings.. They had no need for all of us at the company as their main office was in Houston I believe and they were going to shut our building down.. Each month another dept was gone.. After that first day they did at least tell us when our last day was going to be.. That was on Feb 1st of that year and I made it till July.. They did give us a big stayon bonus and then we got severance packages and actually had another health insurance company in the area come in and hire quite a few of us..

But it was a little nerve wrecking just not knowing what was going to happen..

 

[Kimberly]

Mergers usually do result in layoffs, they're mostly in upper managment. I think your husband has more job security than you think he does. He only has a problem if Addidas is planning on moving their stuff into another wharehouse, and in that case, your husband's job might be moving, or he might be laid off entirely. Either way, just have his resume ready just in case something does happen.

 

[LoveBWVVBR]

I worked for a company that was bought out once and merged once. Both times there were layoffs, but not nearly as many as you'd think that there would be. They occured mostly in duplicate upper management positions. Both times they instituted the hiring freeze also if memory serves me.

BTW, I'm of the mind that none of us has any job security anywhere, at any time. It seems to be an unfortunate reality of the present day.