Conference 7.286::digital

          <<< HUMAN::DISK$HUMAN_WRKD:[NOTES$LIBRARY]DIGITAL.NOTE;1 >>>
                          -< The DEC way of working >-
================================================================================
Note 642.0*             STOCK BUYBACK - TAKEOVER DEFENSE?             No replies
NOVA::M_DAVIS "Eat dessert first;life is uncertain." 11 lines  26-OCT-1988 11:41
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    Yesterday, DIGITAL announced it will buy back 10,000,000 shares of its
    stock.  This is approximately 8 or 9 per cent of those shares
    outstanding.  
    
    The perennial AT&T takeover rumor has once again surfaced.  For
    further information on the stock buyback and for detailed information
    on the financial positions of both companys, see note #1170 of the
    BMT::Investing notes conference.  Press kp7 or Select.
    
    Marge 

        I meant the pointer in .1 to be for discussion of another
        company (e.g., AT&T) taking over Digital.
        
        If anyone wants to discuss takeovers in general, I don't
        know whether BMT::INVESTING is the place to do it.  I'm
        sure that the DIGITAL conference is not the place to do
        it.
        
Jim Stratton
        

    re: .2
    
    Why not?
    
    It certainly effects the employees.
    
    Dileep,
    
    I can think of one negative aspect of AT&T (specifically) taking
    DEC over.  I'd say that most of Heffner's group would be pounding
    bricks in short order.
    
    :-{
    
    Brett.

And... AT&T would require most non-management employees to...

    
    
    	I spent two years with the Bell System (1979-1981), just before
    	divestiture. It was without a doubt, the most miserable two
    	years that I have spent during my career. Since I did not have
    	the proverbial "Bell-Shaped Head", any ideas that I had (even
    	the ones that my co-workers admitted had a lot of merit) were
    	never taken seriously. I had to fight "tooth and nail" to be
    	given any job that had even a moderate amount of responsibility
    	and when I was given such a task had to make sure that anything
    	that I did would stand up to an amazing amount of scrutiny.
    	I finally got fed up with fighting against the system and left
    	for greener pastures (not DEC, although it was during this 2
    	year period that I worked with my first VAX).
    
    	So that the readers don't get the impression that my writings
   	are nothing more then sour grapes, my wife has the "Bell Shaped
    	Head" (having spent her entire 13 year working life with Ma
    	Bell) and she is begininng to get upset with the build up of
    	bureaucratic(sp?) nonsense that has been taking place over the
    	last year or so.
    
    	MY OPINION OF A POSSIBLE TAKEOVER BY A T & T --- UGH!
    
    	Ken
    

        This is not a place for voting.  As Jim Stratton already pointed
        out, this really isn't the right place to discuss "takeover"
        rumors.  And if it were the right place, there's really no
        need to start yet another topic (I'm sure this has been in
        here before, but I don't really care enough to search for it
        at this late hour).
        
        In any case, it's really a more appropriate topic for SOAPBOX
        than for DIGITAL, unless we confine the discussion to its impact
        on "The Digital Way of Working".  Personal anecdotes that put
        down other companies probably aren't relevant.
        
        Tom
        another DIGITAL co-moderator

    Takeovers I've read about (never a personal experience) have most
    often resulted in the predominant company remodeling the corporate
    culture of the "taken-over" in it's own image, with a significant
    elimination of redundant personnel, often mostly middle managers.
    
    Although I'd be absolutely astounded if any company was able to
    take DEC over, to the extent that my imagination can encompass the
    idea I think it would be a bummer.  DEC has many faults I'd like
    to see corrected as a workplace, but most of them are connected
    to the fact that DEC is a HUGE company!  A takeover would make the
    company even bigger and the problems associated would magnify. 
    People used to a certain way of doing things would have to make
    sudden probably unwanted adjustments.
    
    And I'd fear the loss of a lot of really valuable things DEC does
    to make working here better than other places.  Not enough companies
    appreciate the fact that employees are people and that, if treated
    as people and taken care of as people, they become more valuable
    as employees -- product-producers, and all that.
    
    Sherry

    Hey, I have a great idea to quell the takeover rumours!
    
    Let's change everyone's employee agreement.  Any obligations that
    an employee has TO the company, vis a vis things like ownership
    of patents and related intellectual property created while an employee,
    revert to the employee in case of takeover.
    
    Who'd wanna buy a land bank?

RE:< Note 645.8 by DELNI::GOLDSTEIN "A thousand pints of Lite" >
               -< I vote for a poison pill defense just in case >-

Add eligibility to exercise stock options without restrictions to that list.

/dileep