Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Deloitte Offers to Buy BearingPoint Public Services Division

Many of you who know me or have followed my webMethods career probably remember that I showed up on the radar screen right before my trip to Australia.

I met a lot of great people who supported me when I worked "downunder" and because of their generosity I can sit here today and continue to write about webMethods, traveling and the consulting lifestyle.

In 2006, my career took a serious turn. The Army Reserves called me to duty in Afghanistan for 15 months. It was 15 months away from the technology that I love.

It took a lot of diligent reading and hands-on work to keep abreast of the changes webMethods (Software AG) released. And now, I am pretty fluid with the new product offerings up to and including 7.1.2.

Now, I am faced with yet another very interesting turn of events.

It all started with an article in early February 2009 that declared 15 companies that would not make it to the end of the year. In fact, it seemed as if Nostradamus wrote the piece, because the BearingPoint bankruptcy announcement came shortly thereafter.

Of course, everyone wants the Juicy Juice about what's going on behind the scenes. To tell you the truth, I've always avoided the office gossip. As a consultant, I stay out in the field, billing, racking up utilization points and staying clear of the politics.

But, there were stories. Stories of big companies swinging through the doors of BearingPoint, kicking tires and the such. Companies like Dell, Price Waterhouse Coopers (which turned out to be partially true.) Some of us speculated that it would be a private company with the proper backing that would eventually purchase the portions of the company that generates the most amount of profit.

I really didn't think about Deloitte as a suitor. I did think of CACI, SAIC, SRA and CGI. But Deloitte never really came to mind. And then the Price Waterhouse Coopers deal to buy out Commercial Services.

My work visit to Australia occurred during the timeframe where PWC sold their consulting business to IBM Global Solutions. I observed the transformation of PWC personnel to IBM. Not everyone was happy, but in the end, the integration completed and IBM absorbed all personnel.

Then, the layoffs came.

And so now, we face the music.

I mean, what is a corporate bankruptcy? Does it mean we close down? It could if the deal falls through. Will we? I dunno; let's see what the next several weeks bring forth.

Another suitor with a bigger wallet may show up and force a gentleman's bidding war.

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