Business Week has the Alec Gores interview for its article on Gores Group's Siemens acquisition and joint venture. The article highlights the financial straits that SEN was in before the acquisition: Almost $1 billion in losses last year, declining market share, stiff competition from incumbent and new vendors. Even more revealing is Gores' hints about how he'll go about fixing SEN.
Business Week has the Alec Gores interview for its article on Gores Group's Siemens acquisition and joint venture. The article highlights the financial straits that SEN was in before the acquisition: Almost $1 billion in losses last year, declining market share, stiff competition from incumbent and new vendors. Even more revealing is Gores' hints about how he'll go about fixing SEN.When Business Week asked Gores about turning Siemens around, he cited his experience not with Enterasys--the company whose Gores turnaround was a focus at yesterday's press conference--but Verifone, a company Gores acquired from HP:
When Gores bought VeriFone, the maker of credit-card verification terminals for retailers was unprofitable. Under Gores the company ditched a new product design initiative that was eating up 60% of its research budget and channeled the money into marketing and other more popular products. It also got rid of a leasing business that wasn't performing.
Now, one reason Gores told this story is undoubtedly because it's a great story, as the article details. But does it also tell us anything about what exact measures Gores will take with Siemens?
I wrote yesterday that Siemens isn't really hurting for new, innovative products. Obviously, I don't know what-all they have in the development pipeline, but if Gores emphasizes marketing and popular products over expensive new product initiatives, that's actually a good thing for Siemens. The battle in UC is going to won at the channel and ISV level, or so we're told, so it seems reasonable for that to be a major emphasis for Siemens going forward.
