I just came back from 5 days in New York to find that the company I work for (Paris-based Business Objects) has been bought out by German software powerhouse SAP – the 3rd largest software company in the world. For a hefty 4.8 billion euros (or $6.7 billion CAD) – the reason I first noticed something was wrong was our stock had jumped 25%.

At present, there’s now plans to change anything here at work, but I imagine things will look drastically different in 6 months. Maybe German language classes to complement the French ones already offered. I missed the company-wide meeting yesterday, so I don’t know too many details. The company big heads seem to be praising the deal, but only a few months ago they trumpeted our independence and vowed to keep us the largest pure Business Intelligence company. When Hyperion was bought out by Oracle back in March, there were company-wide emails saying how “the acquisition is good news for us and unfortunate news for Hyperion’s employees and customers”, and now we’re in the exact same position, but suddenly its great news for everyone. I call hypocrisy, but I’ll let them spin it however they want.

I also found out today that a few more co-workers are leaving the company. Is there a business equivalent of the turkey dump?