Stockman,
At the risk of siding with Duncan, who is apparently hated... I must ask one simple question regarding the survey posted by Duncan.
First you'll note that both USRx and BAY are rated well off the top. Combining the two, even at that time, certainly would not have rated them much higher if at all.... I trust you would agree? Second, typically mergers create inner turmoil/confusion in an organization no matter how good the team.... This almost always translates into poorer customer support and slower product development since neither team has been trained on the entire corporate product line much less their strategic direction. It therefore is reasonable to assume that had this survey been done anytime within 6 months after the acquisition/merger that BAY would have certainly ranked even lower. I'm not sure there's a way around this argument but I'm willing to hear your point of view.
Now, it may be that BAY is turning the corner on their acquisition now. And if we assume that things got a bit worse before they got better it may also be that BAY has now returned to an equivalent level of customer responsiveness, technology development, and general talent level as they had when this original survey was done. I think this pretty much goes without saying, so once again, I'm interested in your perspective. Plainly, how does an merger/acquistion of two companies (rated 3 and 5), given typical merger pains now rate them number 1 in less than a year??? Companies this size simply don't work through the corporate "crap" that an aquisition brings in less than a year... In then meantime ASND, LU, NT, and yes CSCO keep on marching along.
Gary |
