Anyone work for a company acquired by Apollo Global Mgmt?

[Hearth Mistress]

On conference calls that started at 6AM this morning, I learned that the division I work for at my company was sold to Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm and we will be renamed and branded as a stand alone entitiy in the next 90 days.

I googled them of course and was really surprised by the list of their holding companies. They were recently in the news for buying Hostess and bringing back the Twinkie but had no idea that other big companies and resorts were under their umbrella.

I was just wondering if anyone here worked for a company that was acquired by Apollo. It has not even sunk in my head yet as to what this all means to me and my future but wanted to get the good, bad and ugly from real life experiences, not just what I see on the internet. Thanks!

 

[firefighterjake]

On conference calls that started at 6AM this morning, I learned that the division I work for at my company was sold to Apollo Global Management, a private equity firm and we will be renamed and branded as a stand alone entitiy in the next 90 days.

I googled them of course and was really surprised by the list of their holding companies. They were recently in the news for buying Hostess and bringing back the Twinkie but had no idea that other big companies and resorts were under their umbrella.

I was just wondering if anyone here worked for a company that was acquired by Apollo. It has not even sunk in my head yet as to what this all means to me and my future but wanted to get the good, bad and ugly from real life experiences, not just what I see on the internet. Thanks!

Free Twinkie Thursday?

 

[BrotherBart]

Yeah I heard rumbles that they were after P-B Mgt. Services U.S. You guys should be a natural for assisting their other holdings.

 

[Grisu]

This one here sounds actually really promising:
http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/10/09/the-private-equity-wizardry-behind-realogys-comeback/?_r=0
They really fought to keep Realogy alive instead of having it sink with its debt. Some of their other assets are also doing really well such as Charter Communications. I would keep an eye on how much additional debt they put on the balance sheet of your company. That is the way "bad" private equity firms make money. (Buy a company with debt money, refinance it on the company's balance sheet, sell it with a huge debt load and have it go bankrupt within a few years.) Nevertheless, a quick glance suggests they are actually pretty smart investors who buy distressed assets, turn the company around and sell them for profit. Not quite unlike Buffet.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

Yeah I heard rumbles that they were after P-B Mgt. Services U.S. You guys should be a natural for assisting their other holdings.

Now that we know, it all makes sense now as we combined all "services" to roll up under my current division leadership effective June 1st. My piece of the division is on site client contracted labor services which is a good 80% of the "new" division with several print and media services, they use to be separate, thrown into the mix. As long as they don't name us something stupid and screw up the branding, I think we'll be ok. I'm close with the leadership at the top of the food chain and they swear they are truly excited about this and not just passing the kool aid.

PBMS is a profitable division since our contracts cover our labor, overhead and then some so while there are accounts that do better than others, we hit our numbers and budgets because they are real time dollars based on the annual revenue of our contracts. Granted, accounts downsize (GM) and grow (AAA) so at least at face value we do pretty well for ourselves.
We sort of knew our days were numbered when the new CEO was brought in from IBM, bringing in a lot of his folks and in May they sold off the UK division. PB wants to focus on their original core, equipment and software so we knew we didn't really fit into the new revived "vision"

I'm reading a lot about Apollo and so far, we could have done way worse. We have really good executive leadership so I have faith that this will be a successful venture. Time will tell, the next 90 days should be interesting for sure!

 

[BrotherBart]

Acquisitions and takeovers are stressful. Went through several. If they start replacing the light bulbs with lower wattage, run.

You guys are essentially efficiency experts. They need ya.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

"3rd times a charm" as the saying goes.

1st - I was with OfficeMax when Boise bought them, I ran for the hills before the deal was over as even with my early in career eyes, it looked bad. No regrets there.

2nd - I was with Kinkos when FedEx bought them. Drank the tainted koolaid, headed up the change management committees, put up with BS because I thought it would get better. Realized about a year in that FedEx just wanted our retail footprint to compete with the UPS stores and didn't care one bit about Kinko's, it's portfolio of customers or the employees. They downsized managers and it just went downhill, laid off, replaced with a kid making a 1/3 of what I was making. They eventually rebranded again to FedEx Office way after I was gone....Kinkos who? Regrets, waiting it out, blinded by the koolaid.

3rd - this time, I have a lot more years of management experience (read know the BS) and it's an investment firm, they aren't taking us over. Even if they think they can flip the new company as an IPO, that would be a few years off and hopefully by then, I will be all out if koolaid and drinking champagne

I had to personally call all of my executive client partners today to let them know what was going on and they all pretty much told me they weren't loyal to a company, they were loyal to me and my employees. That says a lot about our business relationships, puts me a little at ease at least.

 

[BrotherBart]

Too small for a flip. They have problems in the other acquisitions they need yer talent to fix.

Make hay from it.

 

[Hearth Mistress]

If nothing else, I'll be stocking up on the scotch and hair dye...I'm not ready to go stress gray and scotch cures all ills

 

[Retired Guy]

Good luck and don't forget the Dramamine if things get rocky..