"Windstream to Cut Partners, Increase Commissions During Bankruptcy"
https://www.channelpartnersonline.com/article/windstream-to-cut-partners-increase-commissions-during-bankruptcy/
Interview with Curt Allen, Windstream Enterprise’s president of strategic channels.
5 web-pages long. Interesting comments.
"Now, the question becomes which systems to integrate first. Do you integrate things in the order you purchased them?"
Problem was they had a rotating 'VP of the month' where they literally had a new VP of operations every few months - hence nothing could ever get implemented. Upper management didn't want to deal with integration issues - just that it was all now 'one' company.
And each company had their own different set of programs to do the same thing - so depending on what 'company' you were troubleshooting, you had to login to their desktop and login to their circuit database - these weren't integrated with WINMQ systems for many years - and then when investigating the problem, hope that there was still somebody from one of those acquired companies that knew that system.
But now that VNOC has been outsourced, that isn't a problem anymore as majority of the outsourced technicians 'working' on the customer equipment have very little training.
Don't you feel better as a customer - knowing your hard earned money you pay to WINMQ only qualifies you to have a support team based by the cheapest cost?
Agreed that have done a very poor job integrating things from M&A.
When Windstream bought NuVox, it wasn't long until KDL, Iowa Telecom, Hosted Solutions (datacenter) and then Paetec.
Now, the question becomes which systems to integrate first. Do you integrate things in the order you purchased them? Do you integrate Paetec first, as they own some outside plant? But while you're trying to figure that out, you buy Business Only Broadband, Earthlink, Broadview, and Masscom.
All I know is it's 2019. NuVox was purchased in 2010. And there are some legacy systems still in use. In 9 years, they have been unable to fully integrate back office or network IP schemes. That's the sort of poor integration they write books about Tony.
Dead on accurate with the m&a. Dead on.
BUT WHY?
Becuase middle management of this company kept telling the executives everything is awesome. It's not. However you can't lay the blame solely on the feet of middle management as the executives ate it up like mother's milk... Any discent is met with retaliation and dismissal. So f--- em they harvest what they plant. Glad I am done with the company. If it doesn't change out management this bankruptcy is a waste of time. It's doomed. TT was right about in the townhall about this is what people write books about. Books about how not to f--- it up. Why I am former employee
I forgot to ask why?
Why would senior management have persisted in this? Why would the board let them? It's not like they were boosting the stock price or making anybody happy.
I'm not looking for a "TT is a crook", "TT is an id--t" or "TT is a doo-doo head". Mr Thomas may or may not be those things. So might the independent outside board members. There are some seriously successful people on that board if you read their bios:
https://investor.windstream.com/governance/board-of-directors/default.aspx
The board actually has more technical depth than Windstream's senior management:
https://news.windstream.com/executives/default.aspx
Only 2 have technical backgrounds that I can tell. The rest seem long on accounting and business majors.
But then again, I'd think it would be the accountant types that would be the most persistent at digging into numbers and smelling stink.
Why did they keep repeating the same mistake (bad acquisitions and/or bad assimilation of their acquisitions)?
"Should’ve stopped until they figured out Vox."
I'm a customer, not an insider, but from the outside it just seems so obvious you digest acquisitions before making many more.
If you buy up one or two CLECs and you have problems integrating them, then you:
Try to get that done first
Try to figure out what went wrong in sizing up the deal and avoid making that mistake again
... before buying more. Especially when you're upping risk by going so deeply in debt.
This looks like it's been a slow-moving train wreck for years. A steady accumulation of increasing pain and financial destruction. Just seems masochistic.
Are there any acquisitions they did right? If so, what were they and why did those work?
Should’ve stopped until they figured out Vox.
"John Busse, AbriaCloud Technologies‘ president, said a lot of what’s prompting the bankruptcy filings stems back to M&A.
“In the case of Windstream, they acquired a number of different companies … and what they wound up doing is they just acquired companies, but didn’t integrate anything,” he said. “So eventually your debt winds up taking over your business, and that’s why Windstream got themselves in trouble."
Exactly! Imagine how the company would have been without all these clueless M&A! But then again with TT and his Zombies in charge, they would have found a way to still run it into the ground.
Resellers reactions to Windstream bankruptcy:
"Windstream, Other Bankruptcies Have Partners Talking"
https://www.channelpartnersonline.com/2019/04/17/windstream-other-bankruptcies-have-partners-talking/
The executive was being interviewed by a magazine for system integrators and resellers. I think he wanted to calm resellers and customers.
I reckon he probably knows what’s going on.
It’s probably in every employee’s interest that customers don’t get any more spooked than they already are.
I’m a customer and I’m spooked!
"We weren’t anywhere near going bankrupt until Aurelius won that court case with us. So we’re able to address that inside of a financial restructuring, and that’s why we think it may be only nine or 10 months. It’s the same plan going forward. It’s a financial restructuring versus an organizational restructuring — two completely different things."
I love it when these completely clueless id--ts say these things - WINMQ was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for years - why did they cut the dividend in 2017 if they weren't 'near bankrupt'? Companies that keep making reverse stock splits aren't companies with profitable quarterly reports.
In 9 or 10 months after they come out of bankruptcy, they will be acquired at K-Mart prices by another telecom company that will gut all these clueless id--ts.
Give them frito chili pie with Levine sauce
Just like all of DM customers from Masscom... What a great buy TT.... Clown 🤡
Chapter 11 allowed them to cut dealer payments. They’ve been trying to figure out how to do that for a while. Now they have legal protection.
They’ll be flipping their customers away from Windstream.
"We weren’t anywhere near going bankrupt until Aurelius won that court case with us. So we’re able to address that inside of a financial restructuring, and that’s why we think it may be only nine or 10 months. It’s the same plan going forward. It’s a financial restructuring versus an organizational restructuring — two completely different things. So our thought is this is a bump in the road as we keep running to the same plan. We are not changing the plan; we’re just accelerating some things a bit."
so it's business as usual. lmao