Three users share experiences when their strategic vendors were bought
Cisco buys a lot of companies – about 139 since 1993, or an average of over eight a year. So customers of the companies Cisco’s acquired might be intimately familiar with the experiences in this piece, which examines three scenarios in which key, strategic vendors to enterprise IT shops were acquired, and what impact it had on those customers.
Though no customers of any company Cisco’s acquired were profiled, the article does provide some insight into what they may have gone through – especially if they were customers of some of Cisco’s larger targets, like Scientific-Atlanta or WebEx or Tandberg. And if these customers were not also Cisco router or switch customers, the deals may have been a little more disconcerting or nerve-racking than if they were.
In any event, customers of acquired companies go through a range of emotions – surprise, bewilderment, concern, curiosity, worry that their investments and assets might be stranded or neglected after their primary vendor is purchased due to product streamlining, an exodus of expertise, strategic refocus — or all three; determination to keep a strategic product on the acquirer’s radar screen even though it may not be strategic to the acquirer; and then resignation when that product is de-emphasized or finally retired, or relief when it’s been retained.
Customers also have some tips for other users of companies facing down an acquisition, like those targeted by Cisco: do your homework. Open up the lines of communication with the acquiring company, especially if they are unfamiliar or not already strategic to your infrastructure, to learn all you can about their strategy, culture, direction, product integration roadmaps – and whether the products you rely on are ones they plan to keep around and invest in.
Only then can you manage the transaction to your advantage while the acquirer manages it to theirs.
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