Once upon a time there was a company called D. Actually it was called something else, but to protect the innocent it will be called D. This company was running along nicely, making a decent profit in spite of the poor market conditions, and generally keeping its employees, customers and community happy.

Along came company A. This company was much bigger, well versed in the “global corporation” style of business, etc. It placed a bid to purchase D, which in turn regarded the bid as hostile. D’s management asked T to make a counter-bid and act as a white knight. T was more than happy to get involved, and together T and A drove up the stock price. The resulting leap in the stock price made the shareholders and executives very happy (and rich)… and the employees very nervous.

A finally won the bidding war. The day they announced to the general public that they had won the war, company M stood up and decided to purchase A. As if things weren’t complicated enough, as part of the deal they promised to sell D to T, which had lost the original bidding war. To say that D’s employees were worried is an understatement. Turnover went up and morale went down.

Now A’s management were smart, and using a very weird Dutch law turned D over to a newly created entity called S3. S3 could only decide one thing: whether or not A could sell D. M tried to do everything it could to sell D, but in the end the stubborn Dutch (disclaimer: I am Dutch by descent and know all about how stubborn we are) held on, and M ended up with A and D. Thus the MAD story.

This is a true story, and took over a year to work itself out. To protect the innocent (me) names have been changed. Please do not post the names above in your comments. They will be summarily deleted. Until late February I worked for D. I have since moved on.

Disclaimer: All of the above information is publicly available and can be found on various web sites and newspapers. I have not revealed anything that cannot be found and verified elsewhere. Opinions are mine alone, and are in no way shape or form represent the previously mentioned companies.