 |
 |
As most of you know, I work for Sensis Corporation a company of about 600 people based in the Syracuse, NY area. Sensis has been generally growing steadily since its founding some thirty years ago. In the last few years or so from a combination of economic stress and some other factors we’ve been reorganizing and working to acquire capital to continue our growth. After months of speculation and rumors, the official announcement came yesterday that Swedish aerospace and defense company Saab Groups has agreed to acquire Sensis in a cash offering. Sensis will become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Swedish company. We do business with Saab already, and have recently announced a major project to provide air surveillance throughout Sweden… so this pairing doesn’t come as a complete surprise.
I have to say I’m rather excited about this match. Sure there is the apprehension involved in any transition, but my only point of comparison is the chaos and bare-knuckle brawling associated with the Raytheon & Hughes merger of 2000. By comparison, I expect this to be almost completely painless. Looking at the Saab portfolio[1] I think it’s a pretty good match. We give Saab a larger base of operations in the US[2], access to our world-leading air traffic control business and expeditionary radar technologies. In return, Saab gives us access to their world wide marketing operations, strength of size[3], research and development operations and hundreds of complementary technologies. Personally though, I tend to do well in a changing environment. I’ve always had the tendency to become bored quickly doing the same sorts of things so I look forward to the opportunity to learn new products and technologies. Besides, I am 1/4 Swedish so maybe this is just getting back to my roots.
I suppose I should add some disclaimer that this post does not reflect the views of either corporation and is my own personal opinion.