Save and Conquer

The company that both my wife and I work at was officially purchased by a large company on May 1. The purchase was not a surprise. It has been “in the works” for almost a year. Since the purchasing company is traded on the NYSE, we were not allowed to talk about it until after the fact.

We have been told that nothing major will change in the short term. Obviously, some things such as our accounting will change. Another thing that will change is the fact that we are no longer classed as a small company. That means we cannot get new contracts earmarked for small companies.

Something that many of us have asked about are changes to our retirement benefits. Our small company was very generous with its 401k retirement plan. There was not only a match up to 6%, but profit sharing money was also placed in a pooled pension every year. The pension funds are invested in the S&P 500 index. The pension does not offer a set payout, but rather, a weighted percentage of the pension fund, based on length of employment and pay scale. Each vested employee owns a slice of the pension pie.

These retirement benefits will continue unchanged until the end of September. The purchasing company has a 401k plan, but we do not have full details.

Other questions we have, have to do with changes to normal benefits, like health insurance, life insurance, disability, vacation, etc.

The large company has a good track record with other small businesses it has purchased. We have talked to some of these other branches that used to be separate small companies. I have also visited one of the company’s main offices and was impressed with the apparent happiness and camaraderie I observed.

Probably the biggest concerns for my wife and myself is the possibility that the large company will want to relocate our company. They have said they will not do that for now. But how long is “now?”

There will be a presentation by top officers of the purchasing company on Monday. You can bet it will be very crowded.

Stumble it!