#acquisition

Was it a good call? I was surprised. Not sure what this means for re-orgs.

See title

this person was pretty much spot on:

https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1kxe5swhw

Q2 sales will lack both plan and the latest exec forecasts. Substantially. SVP of sales and several Director / Sr. Directors in sales will finally be fired in August. Not for missing the target, but for missing their own forecasts now several quarters in a row.

Q2 sales didn't not meet forecasts or plan. SVP of sales fired.

ARR in the current quarter will shrink vs end of previous quarter (for the first time). That will be the catalyst for the bigger changes:

That did happen (almost). Didn't quite shrinnk, but was flat within Q2 and YTD

CEO still believes that "product is fine, everything else is the problem". He'll be fired, too. Timing just depends on interim and long-term succession plan. Nobody will miss him as he's been over-promising on outside investment / recapitalization / acquisition and under-delivering.

That happened today.

Budgets are shot due to the acquisition of Altruist. Some organizations are cutting budgets sharply going into 2027 especially in various engineering organizations. Expects impacts to contractors at a minimum.

Heard Suncor to take some stake in the Kearl lake asset IOL?

Any news or updates on that?

Heard CNRL is going to acquire some stake in IOL KEARL LAKE.

any updates or news about this?

New Tech Global Staffing is undergoing significant changes following its acquisition by Airswift. The company's consulting and recruiting divisions will be integrated and rebranded under the Airswift name. The staffing division itself will cease operations. Employee separations are scheduled to commence in October. This restructuring marks a new chapter for the company.

Houston, Texas

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2026/09/16/new-tech-global-staffing-layoffs-airswift-deal.html

FIS Acquires AI-Native OpenCoreOS as Core Banking Consolidation Continues

Banking and payments technology group FIS has acquired OpenCoreOS, the AI-native core banking startup founded by former Zafin chief executive Al Karim Somji, only months after the company was publicly launched.

FIS told The Fintech Times the deal completed in March and that Somji has since joined the company as president of enterprise platforms. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal was not announced at the time, although Companies House records put the change of control on 18 March, when Fidelity National Information Services was registered as owning at least 75 per cent of OpenCoreOS UK’s shares and voting rights, as well as having the right to appoint or remove directors. Somji ceased to be a person with significant control on the same day. The board also changed, with all four existing directors stepping down and two new directors appointed.

Bigger core banking providers are increasingly buying newer technology rather than building it themselves, according to analysts, who expect more deals to follow.

Paul Schaus, founder and managing partner of banking consultancy CCG Catalyst, says: “It tells me the large providers have decided it is faster and cheaper to buy innovation than to build it.”

He cites Fiserv’s acquisition of Finxact, FIS’s purchase of Bond and SoFi’s acquisition of Technisys as earlier examples of established financial technology companies buying newer platforms.

On OpenCoreOS, Schaus says: “When a company that is young gets acquired, the buyer is not buying a business, because there was no business yet. FIS bought the technology direction, the team, and time.”

A fast move into FIS
OpenCoreOS was introduced in October 2025 as the “next chapter” in Somji’s work on banking technology, after a period in stealth. The company described OpenCoreOS as an AI-native core modernisation platform and said general availability was planned for the first quarter of 2026.

Somji had already stepped down as chief executive of Zafin after more than two decades leading the banking technology company, while staying on its board. He founded OpenCoreOS with former HSBC global CIO Steve Van Wyk, CTO Slavo Vojacek and chief AI and product officer Ricky Marcon.

At launch, the company said it was working with tier-one design partners. It also said the platform could run across several cloud providers at once, so an outage at one would not take a bank offline.

FIS already runs several core banking systems. It launched Modern Banking Platform in early 2020 as a cloud-native, component-based way for banks to upgrade their core in stages. Buying OpenCoreOS adds another newer-generation platform to that mix.

Schaus notes the timing: “Six years after launching it, FIS went out and bought an AI-native core.”

FIS gave no further detail on why the deal was not announced, whether OpenCoreOS remains a standalone product, how FIS is using the technology or whether any banks were live on the platform when the deal completed. It did confirm Somji’s move into the president of enterprise platforms role, and Schaus thinks that appointment says plenty about the deal.

I read there is high interest in BP's NS assets. I imagine that everyone wants to expedite the sale, especially the affected employees. It will be very beneficial to work for a company that values the assets and employees and considers them a core asset rather than small legacy asset. Alaska has thrived after BP's sale.

So after 18 acquisitions, 8 1/2 years of Neri leadership, and a really long period of flat, nothing revenue growth, HPE is finally showing some signs of life. I wouldn't count on it lasting though.

Stone Brewing is undergoing significant changes following its recent acquisition by Firestone Walker. While the new ownership is investing in and expanding some operations, the former production facility and restaurant in Escondido are slated for closure. This closure will result in the layoff of approximately 220 employees by January. These job cuts are a consequence of Sapporo, the previous owner, shutting down the Escondido site after failing to find a buyer. In contrast, Stone Brewing's Liberty Station location will receive upgrades and continue brewing operations.

San Diego, California

https://timesofsandiego.com/business/2026/09/15/stone-brewing-layoffs-new-owners-30th-anniversary/

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/sk-hynix-talks-with-intel-about-deal-make-memory-chips-us-first-time-sources-say-2026-09-16/

The retail sector has great margins and it would be another part of the supply chain owned by Nike. It’s near bottom all time valuation so it would be a great time to takeover.

The stock has been buried to lows and im wondering why Nike just doesn’t buy our company?

CDW acquire Lovelytics for $525M. Messaging from leadership “Layoffs are a result of cost cutting measures. We are extremely sorry.” Many talented individuals are given walking papers, some had been with CDW for 10, 20 and 30 years. These individuals are what made CDW, they made it better, they created the culture that made everyone better. It’s all gone :-(

How can you find your first day of unemployment with Centene to put on an unemployment application? My company was bought by Centene several years after I started.

Seriously, how much longer are we supposed to wait? It’s been almost a year already. When is OpenText finally going to sell ADM?

• Fidelity National Information Services reported record first half core wins in community and regional banking and rolled out new AI driven and embedded banking products, alongside a collaboration with Ericsson to speed digital wallet deployments.
• These moves suggest that more banks and wallet providers are consolidating around Fidelity National Information Services for connected, multi product technology rather than point solutions.
• The next area of attention is how this wave of record core wins shapes Fidelity National Information Services' investment narrative.

https://simplywall.st/stocks/us/diversified-financials/nyse-fis/fidelity-national-information-services/news/what-fidelity-national-information-services-shares-record-co

Nestle CEO says Middle East conflict driving inflation, higher supplier costs

• Middle East accounts for about 2% to 3% of Nestle's roughly 90 billion Swiss francs in sales
• Nestle may buy strategically important brands as it reviews portfolio periodically, Navratil says
• Navratil says food manufacturers should join India talks on ​proposed front-of-pack warning labels

https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/nestle-ceo-says-middle-east-conflict-driving-inflation-higher-supplier-costs-2026-09-10/

At TMT Osvaldik indicated that we will not enable a Starlink MVNO. But since our D2D joint venture with ATT / Verizon was announced, rumors have circled that T-Satellite will be ditching Starlink for AST Spacemobile once their service us up. If this happens I fear that SpaceX has no choice but to acquire us - as its the only way they will be able to provide true terrestrial service to the U.S. market. That would result in a major bloodbath (we all saw what happened when Elon acquired X). Doubt it would make financial sense, but SpaceX can easily raise the $ and they are looking deep into the future.

Can someone please talk me off this cliff?

Hearing whispers of a good sized acquisition that might be finalized soon.
Anyone else?

Florida WellMed clinics sold off to TPG announced this morning: https://finance.yahoo.com/healthcare/articles/unitedhealth-sells-interest-florida-wellmed-005524593.html

Allegiance is a TPA thats been owned by Cigna for some time now and up until last year handled its own hiring/ firing process, benefits for employees and totally independent CEO. We were fully integrated with Cigna’s HR structure 1/1/2026. Our entire hr department was let go during this change. We were promised nothing would change except our benefits and we’d have access to apply to cigna internal positions. This hasnt been the case. Our entire reimbursement account department was just let go. This used to be such a nice small company to work for and now we are being run into the ground

Lots of unverified/ speculative chatter on the web about a 2nd mysterious bidder willing to offer 70 dollars per share which is the boards starting negotiation price and which Stripe Advent were unable to offer. Is it true and who could it be that has the deep pockets? My wild guess is Watsapp/Meta or Twitter/Musk as both want to move out of pure advertising revenue and have the deep pockets.

Options that Xerox should consider for the business include a joint venture, strategic capital partnership, alternative funding structures, partial monetization, or a sale of some or all of the business, according to Starteepo.

Xerox holder calls for strategic review of financial services business.

Frontier = fiber-optic internet, TV/streaming, and phone service, mainly for residential/small business, historically stronger in certain regional/rural fiber buildouts.
• Verizon = wireless service (phones, tablets) plus its own home internet (Fios fiber, 5G Home Internet), historically stronger nationwide, especially for mobile.
• Now combined: Since the acquisition, Verizon has been bundling the two — for example, offers combining Frontier fiber internet with Verizon mobile plans, like free months of fiber plus discounted phone lines.

Frontier is a Verizon company .. now all Frontier and Verizon employee together.

What is going on with Honeywell Life Sciences and the Sparta Systems acquisition? Seems like a merry go round of leader change. Almost recognize no one anymore.

Private equity firms are increasingly impacting Michigan's manufacturing sector through acquisitions and consolidations. This ownership model often leads to increased efficiency, which can result in significant layoffs. Companies like Trystar and Autokiniton have recently announced substantial workforce reductions. These actions highlight a trend of private equity-driven restructuring within the state's industrial landscape. The long-term effects on the Michigan workforce are a growing concern.

Troy, Michigan

https://pestakeholder.org/news/private-equity-links-to-michigan-bankruptcies-layoffs-union-busting/

Democratic lawmakers led by Senator Elizabeth Warren and Representative Hank Johnson launched an investigation into Amazon MGM Studios over its $75 million total financial commitment—comprising a $40 million acquisition cost and $35 million marketing budget—for the documentary Melania, questioning whether the deal constitutes a corrupt pay-to-play bribe.

Acquisition Cost: Amazon MGM Studios paid $40 million for the self-titled documentary, outbidding competitors like Disney by roughly $26 million.

Payout to Melania Trump: An estimated 70% of the purchase price (about $28 million) went directly to Melania Trump's production company.

Marketing Budget: An additional $35 million was allocated for promotion, far exceeding typical budgets for high-end feature documentaries.

Box Office Return: The film grossed $16.6 million globally during its theatrical run, falling far short of recouping Amazon's investment

What is the timeline for moving all GP execution roles to India? I heard there was a report recently to move in this direction.

Software firm Qualtrics has eliminated 117 positions at its Seattle location. These layoffs follow the company's recent acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta. Employees were notified of the cuts on August 19th, with their last day being October 18th. The company stated these decisions were made to integrate operations and create a unified team. This action is part of a broader restructuring effort to eliminate duplicate roles.

Seattle, Washington

http://www.chronline.com/stories/software-maker-qualtrics-cuts-117-jobs-in-seattle,407566?

Questioning Maryann Mannen’s M&A experience / strength. There were rumors of a large Gulf Coast refinery acquisition that never materialized. Then leaked merger talks with P66 that fell short. These events happened when crack spreads were in the high teens and low $20’s. Imagine how either one could have further energized MPC’s share price now that crack spreads are running $60-&70. Any thoughts on possible missed opportunities by our CEO?

Just heard from a colleague, that some of the stores that were divested in the last year are underperforming from a contractual standpoint, specifically BeMobiles in the northeast (was called out specifically, apparently they haven’t been able to prove that they can scale with their business model) and that at the end of the year the 1 year contracts they signed on with are being looked at. Sounds like Cellular Sales and TCC are front runners to take over most locations in northeast.

Read on earlier posts that WellMed is planned to be sold by Optum by the end of the year, is that true?

As a long standing employee, I pinpointed the exact time and reason why we started going down hill and the main culprit was Dan Schulmann. Rather than using the post Covid high to become a fully fledged online bank competing with likes of JP Morgan Chase and Citi , he chased mirage acquisitions like Honey and Pinterest. Alex Chriss came and realized the mistake a bit late. Now it's too late. We would most likely be acquired by a bank we could have been.

A few weeks back I posted about recognizing a few Advent guys in the SJ office (and no they weren’t hanging out in the lobby). My post was taken down because I mentioned names. I don’t think they are done trying to buy us. Time will tell.

Looks like Vivek is out . Verizon IT unit as a whole will go to Deloitte