At first, it seemed like adding cybersecurity training to the company’s portfolio with the acquisition was not a bad move at all. Now I'm thinking how long it will be before Cengage destroys every potential of this acquisition? Considering the acquisitions so far, I am not optimistic at all.
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If it's anything like webassign, terribly. They'll break apart their small team to 'integrate' it into the rest of cengage, diluting the talent and unfocusing concentration on the core product. Then they'll saddle those employees with work on product streams while reducing the team further. Development will stall, and, well, you get it by now.
I can promise you. Here's how it goes. Someone like MH gets his/her executive leadership team together to review the numbers. They aren't good.
MH says something like "bring me a plan to take costs out of the business."
A week or so later a plan is submitted and approved.
There is never one word spoken about ruining people's lives.
I've been in those meetings. This is exactly how it works.
Yes. He sounds like the evil guy from Raiders of the Lost Ark who got his hand burned on the doorknob.
You know MH is sitting in his ivory castle trying to find another way to squeeze a nickel out of the company to throw on his giant cash stack. He doesn't care about what lives are crushed. Have you heard the man speak?
Cengage will fire all the Infosec salespeople or will force them to sell Cengage products of which they will have no knowledge of or desire to sell.
Most will quit and another trove of product expertise and customer information will be lost.
Cengage reps will also sell InfoSec and again, will have no product knowledge or relationships to leverage. This will prove to be a disaster.
How do I know? It happens every time a publisher acquires a smaller, technology based company.
To the geniuses in management, the obsession over sales force efficiency outweighs the benefits of keeping a specialized, highly focused and motivated sales force.
Within three years, InfoSec will be a shell of its former self.
I imagine it will go the way of WebAssign and others. Smiles and happy-happy at first, then a deep house-clearing and replacements brought in at 2/3rds or less of the prior employees' pay. Then the actual product that was acquired goes to heck and we're off to the next one.
Acquisitions often provide a short-term revenue burst though, as Cengage hasn't sunk its fangs into a healthy vein just yet.