Keep in mind that insiders are the only ones with the full picture. CEO Mark Barrenechea took a traditional Canadian document management company and, through aggressive acquisitions, attempted to turn it into a Silicon Valley tech giant. He added business networks, AI, and cybersecurity to the portfolio—a strategy that investors and insiders initially praised.
However, acquiring Micro Focus was a step too far. The narrative became much harder to sell, and the employees could not bail leadership out this time. The workforce is already overworked, underpaid, and burdened with maintaining legacy software that sees little to no ongoing R&D.
Now, speculation suggests the insiders are devising an exit strategy: selling off the most valuable assets for top dollar and offloading the remainder to IBM—a legacy U.S.-based pioneer in the document management space. Why is the Executive Leadership Team (ELT) now consolidating in Canada? (Word is that key executives like Todd and Muhi will be gone by the end of the calendar year.) One theory is that this positions them perfectly for executive roles at IBM Canada following an acquisition.
None of these moves benefit the clients (who are treated as disposable) or the employees (who are viewed as entirely replaceable). If you are not an executive, this transition will likely not end well for you—whether you end up at OpenText, IBM, Rocket Software, or any other acquiring company.
Insiders are relying on the "greater fool" theory, hoping to pitch OpenText as the missing puzzle piece for another corporation. As they sell off divisions and enact layoffs, they will likely get richer, spinning false narratives that AI will fill the productivity gap—all while demanding the remaining employees work longer and harder.
In the end, just like a Vegas casino, the house always wins.