It’s true. Wrigley agreed to MARS’s unsolicited offer of $23 billion dollars. Essentially, that means Wrigley will be no more. OK, that’s not entirely true; we will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of MARS but Wrigley will no longer be a publicly traded company.
I personally think it’s exciting to be a part of something historic and momentous. However, not everyone at Wrigley shares my sentiments. On a selfish level, I see the buyout creating many more opportunities, especially in the beginning as the two companies search for synergies and ways to create more value. The water cooler was definitely a buzz today though. It would be safe to say that today was a “throw away” day as most people spent time bouncing from cube to cube speculating on the future, of which, no one has any idea.
Bill Wrigley Jr. and our CEO, Bill Perez, spoke at a town hall meeting this afternoon and assured the worker bees that this is good for the company and that no immediate changes (i.e. layoffs) are expected. Which I tend to believe since it wouldn’t make much sense for MARS to pay such a premium for a company only to make drastic changes.
The only downside that I can plainly see is potentially the free M&Ms. Keeping my girlish figure may have just gotten exponentially harder.
April 29, 2008 at 12:13 pm |
MiniVin has sent more companies tumbling than a subprime mortgage. When he took the job with Wrigley we joked that I should warn them. Look who is laughing now!!
A rundown:
DirecTV Broadband – went belly-up after his hiring.
MetroOne – stock was hovering in the $150 range, now around 70 cents.
Wrigley – hundred and seventeen year old company, a landmark in Chicago, being bought out within several months of miniVin’s hiring.
Coincidence…i think not.
closerlook, be afraid…be very afraid