Sunday, June 1, 2025

RETR@migo: June 1, 2008

Ya know, even though this happened at a time when I wasn't (financially) ready to retire, I gotta say, I'm not surprised at how unconcerned I was. I mean, the importance of a regular job paycheck wasn't lost on me. It's the engine that everything else runs on. So why wasn't I more freaked out about losing it? I just remember thinking that no matter who owned us, they'd need me. Simple as that. Cocky? No. Confident? Maybe. But really, it was just a practicality. Our Network Services systems were tricky. And our clients were very picky. I knew it'd be very difficult to migrate our customers off of our network. And turns out... I was right! Through two more owners, and now 4+ years past my retirement, the VAPS network is still chugging along. Long live COBOL! ✊

I’ve had an interesting situation brewing at work for the last few months. Well ya know, work interesting, not real life interesting.

Back in March, there was an emergency meeting for my whole department (Network Services) where we all crammed into The Big Room in my office building and were told that although we were profitable, we were “not in alignment with Alliance Data’s core business” going forward. ADS had decided to sell us and we were now on the market. Naturally, there were a lot of shocked faces in the room. But that was nothing compared to people’s reaction after we were told not to worry when we saw Network Services listed under “Discontinued Operations” on the next financial report. 350 Chicken Littles scurried out of that meeting!

Personally, I didn’t see things as dire as most everyone else. I’d been thru this before actually… I started at JC Penney Business Services which sold off the Business Services unit to an investment company who then combined us with another of their holdings (Sears Payment Systems) to create Alliance Data Systems. Throughout all that, I stayed in the same job, doing more or less the same stuff on the same systems while the world changed around me. So, my initial reaction to this latest news was “wait and see” rather than “we’re all doomed!”

Fast forward to the beginning of May when another emergency department meeting was called (they never give more than like 10 minutes notice for these things, lord help ya if you’re in the bathroom!) to announce that a buyer had signed a letter of intent to purchase Network Services. And the buyer is…

(fade to black)

To be continued…



bwahahahaha!

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