Thread regarding Follett layoffs

So I'm guessing nobody from the Family will be contributing to Family Business Magazine in the future right?
Of course there's always the CEO of content.

She defends her because she IS her. No other excuse for defending the ostrich lady.

Some of us worked our way into leadership through hard work for this company and measurable outcomes. Some called their dad and said, I don’t want to be a news person, I think I’d be good at marketing and bing bang, they’re a VP of Marketing and board member. If that’s not reason for complaint I don’t know what is. You keep defending her. You’re on the wrong side of history.

Everyone has “character”, even the degenerates like you. Everyone “contributes” to this company, even the complainers like you. Stop trying to insult and bring everyone down with your miserable life.

BF’s “character” and what she “contributes” to the company? Bwa ha ha ha ha!!! Either you never worked with her or for her or you’re family. She treated everyone like a means to an end. The end being money and power. At her very best she wrote poorly written blog posts. At her worst she ruined people’s careers to stay in TL’s good graces. If you were in McHenry with the rest of us you’d know. Character? That cracked me up.

You can stop kissing BF’s a-s, unless you are BF posting. The family doesn’t own you anymore.

If she maybe cared about people a little more in her tenure and not turned her head when TL let really good people go, people would be kinder. Also, if she actually accomplished anything and didn’t always take her ideas from other people, she would be respected. Shes a complete joke. Also, she’s a big girl. She wants the power, she needs to deal with the criticism.

The family may be rich, but happiness will always elude the likes of TL and BF. That’s how karma works.

Does it really make you people feel better to come on here and attack someone’s character and what they actually contribute to this company? Completely unfair, unprofessional, and doesn’t reflect well on you - even if you do remain ‘anonymous’. Get a life!

I bet the team from Francisco-Partners were laughing their a$$es off..
Sure, we value her input, we'd love to have her stay on as, as, as...
CEO of Content
(CEO of Content???? Ha! Ha! Ha! - and they bought it!)

A CEO of Content is what you call a family member that had a job bought for them in the deal price as a last move before turning the reigns over to real business people.

The CEO of content better have a strong contract.

What the he-l is a CEO of content?

Great news for those of us who were suddenly stupid or otherwise let go thanks to MLS and her pack of ignorant goons. Hope the shareholders take the money and run. Heads up RP in Software, Chuckles can't protect your ghost payroll anymore. Deep voice "Weeeelllllll."

The CEO of content better have a strong contract. No private equity firm will be fooled by her for long. Won’t be able to hide behind daddy any longer. They’re going to want more than silly blog posts and future ready librarians.

Nobody safe, EXCEPT - The CEO of content.

The Hedge Fund wouldn't know what to do without her!

This is just embarrassing and sad.

Buying company is a hedge fund, look for lots of layoffs from top down. No one will be safe.

My bet is that it will be sold to someone else. Follett family wants out of the business. Hard to find a buyer for both K12 and higher ed. Easier if they're split up.

So the elephant in the room. If FSS was the only profitable part of the business is now sold, what happens to the rest? FHEG???

New marriage? She’s been married to that lame gold digger for years. Wasn’t he a small town news reporter legend too?

I'm SURE her YEARS AND YEARS of experience are what they're looking for and that's why she agreed to stay on as CEO of content. She has SO much knowledge as CEO of content. She got that while earning her local Emmy award. It called a made up position to sweeten the deal for the family. What a joke.

I’m sure if that was her intention, she wouldn’t have agreed to stay on as CEO of content. She would’ve taken the money from the sale and ran.

She won't be there. Her family is rich. She doesn't need the headache. She will drop out and focus on her new marriage.

Should be fun to see BF report to a PE firm without CF and TL to hide behind.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210901005798/en/Francisco-Partners-Acquires-Follett-School-Solutions

Husband called on his break and said there is a "parking lot" meeting for employees during their lunch today. He works at the McHenry, IL distribution facility.

D-mba$$ the company is strong hence the reason why it’s capable of being sold!

If it is just a rumor it’s funny that the “company is strong and you can all gtfo” poster is suddenly missing…

FSS 9/1
Retail mid October
B&T closing the doors. No one wants this company. You’ve been warned.

I heard that FSS is being bought by Barnes and Barnes is being bought by FHEG.

At least TL has some more money to payoff the debt of kids of Lake Forest Alums. Di----t.

Just FSS. Francisco Partners. North of $600M. Maybe the good people in k-12 can thrive again.

Jesus, where's FHEG gonna get its profit from now? Back to pillaging employee pay and benefits.

The idea of Follett running only the college stores from now on is a fu----g laugh riot. What a pack of jokers.

Wasn't Baker & Taylor owned by several private equity companies before being bought by Follett? That's odd right?

The Company is so strong someone else wants to buy it. Sources say its a private equity company Francisco Partners and it's just the k12 business. Follett will still run the college bookstores. Bookfairs wont last long under private equity

A sale to Scholastic. Scholastic eliminates their only well funded competition in book fairs plus gains access to the very lucrative higher education market - where they have near zero presence.

We may not have the specific agenda for the call, but we can easily imagine the outline: glum executives at the HO on the phone, woodenly lamenting the “unforeseen” and catastrophic loss of a giant contract, the way that the business is “surprisingly” not meeting plan, and that “moving forward requires bold transformation.” They will do their damnedest to put a shine on the big pile of ex------t in the room: they flopped on their adaptation to compete with Amazon and BN, they failed at every turn, and despite their relentless self-congratulation, their feckless “initiatives” of the past 2-3 years tanked. Of course, they will not accept responsibility (they will always believe that rests on the ‘stupid’ peons on the stores). As we keep saying: get your resume ready and head for the exit.

The Wednesday meeting appears to be all of FSS - not limited to management. It shows over 1000 invited on my calendar.

This supposed meeting on Wednesday must be RM or GVP and up cause this SM ain’t got nothing about it. Post the full content of the email if it’s true!

What meeting on Wednesday?

This explains the "plesse make every effort to join this meeting" on Wednesday. Guessing they're not pleased the Post had the scoop and probably wanted to wait until they actually have a buyer to say anything

This actually makes sense. The huge desperate push in the last year to get schools to buy into the ACCESS BS. Some of the tactics were really strong. You either get on this program or we will pull out of the contract in the fall. The closings of bookstores have been fast and furious in the last year for underperforming stores. Now that the company has cut loose a bunch of dead weight they can present the company as a shiny new penny for sale. Because of they have dragged their feet on innovation and reinvention they found themselves grasping at straws to stimulate profits. The dead weight stores they cut loose had loads of potential but because of their tunnel vision they treat all stores the same. The best thing that could happen to all of the colleges is a new company to run their stores. A company that knows the college bookstore of the past is dead and gone, They need a company with a new fresh vision. A company that knows to turn a profit you need quality equipment, a competent and reachable IT staff and fresh exciting merchandise. A company that realizes its greatest asset is the team that is actually interacting daily with the schools. The team that knows what the school wants and needs and the ability to be a great partner to make that happen. The schools need to be treated to their individual needs and not a one size fits all. Because Foollitt has not and will not do this, the company needs to sell to someone that knows how to run the new college bookstore.