• The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
Menu
  • The Four Hundred
  • Subscribe
  • Media Kit
  • Contributors
  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Activist Investor Icahn Puts the Squeeze on Lawson Software

    June 14, 2010 Timothy Prickett Morgan

    It takes money to make money, so they say, and if you have enough money, you can apparently make people let you take their money or their company. That, in essence, is what grumpy corporate raiders activist investors like Carl Icahn do for a living. They find companies that are not doing as well as they could be, buy up stock, push their way onto boards, sell off assets or whatever it takes to drive up the stock, and then sell their shares and leave with a bigger pile of cash to go make trouble somewhere else. Lawson Software, one of the largest i-related software vendors, is now in Icahn’s cross-hairs.

    Maybe markets need such motivation to be efficient, but I think lots of times, companies are just trying to conduct business in an adverse environment and activist investors with the kind of money and clout that Icahn has had for decades do as much damage to the economy as they do good. It is funny how they always get rich, and employees usually get fired. I’ve said it before and I will say it again: don’t ever take your company public if you love it.

    If you can suss out the cluster of companies that Icahn has brought to bear to get his 8.54 percent stake in Lawson, which are detailed in the Schedule 13D filing that Lawson filed on May 21 (but no one noticed until last week), you have a lot more patience than I do. The minute I see “Cayman Islands” as a corporate address, my blood starts to run hot. As best I can figure, the companies controlled by Icahn has bought 13.8 million Lawson shares, for about $85.3 million, and from margin accounts that appear to be underwater to the tune of $686.4 million. The companies controlled by Icahn started scarfing up shares on April 1 and stopped on May 21.

    Then it was perhaps no coincidence that Lawson reaffirmed its guidance for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2010 ended in May, saying on May 27 that revenues would be in the range of $194 million to $198 million and non-GAAP earnings per share in the range of 10 to 12 cents. Lawson then added that it would be booking a charge of between $5 million and $7 million, most of it hitting in the quarter ending in May but some spilling over into the first quarter of fiscal 2011 ending in August, to cover layoffs relating to the M3 product line. (Formerly known as Movex and the RPG suite that Intentia International, which Lawson bought a few years back, famously ported to Java on the AS/400.) Lawson did not elaborate on the restructuring, except to say that the M3 restructuring involved operations in the United States, Europe, and the Philippines. The layoffs will hit profits in the fourth quarter, Lawson said, adding that 150 to 200 people would be removed from its payroll to cut costs, which represents under 5 percent of its workforce. Lawson said that it would continue to invest in adapting its S3 and M3 suites for various industry verticals, and in the coming fiscal 2011 year would add roughly the same number of employees back.

    I wonder what Carl Icahn thinks about all this. I have a feeling we will all find out soon enough. For the moment, Icahn is looking to meet with Lawson’s management. Lawson’s shared have been rising pretty steadily in the past year and are nearly triple from the low they set at the bottom of the Great Recession, when they kissed $3 a share. All things considered, Lawson did as well as anyone else in the downturn, and better than many. It may simply be that given this knowledge, Icahn wants Lawson to gussy itself up to sell to Oracle, SAP, Infor, or some private equity firm that is hot to trot to take a software company private and flip it later for an even higher price.

    What any of this has to do with making good software that helps people run their business is beyond me. But I am old-fashioned that way. I run a business to work hard, employ people, and put out good products that don’t make me rich, but give me purpose, dignity, and fulfillment. I would bet his last dollar that Icahn would say something very similar about himself.

    RELATED STORIES

    Lawson Unveils Software for Running Internal Clouds

    Lawson’s New Amazon Cloud-Based ERP Supports Customization

    Lawson Updates M3 Suite of ERP Apps for i/OS

    Lawson Bets More Heavily on Healthcare

    Lawson Software Has Ups and Downs in Fiscal Q1

    Lawson Finds Search Software a Good Fit for M3

    Lawson Boosts Profits Even as Economic Meltdown Bites

    Lawson Retrenches as it Reconnects with Customers

    Lawson Sways BPCS Consultancy to M3’s Reseller Rolls

    Lawson Ekes Out Profit in Q3, Partners to Peddle in Quebec

    Lawson Debuts Another M3 BI Tool

    Lawson Sales Hit by Economic Downturn in Fiscal Q2

    Lawson Cuts Jobs to Get Costs in Line with Sales

    Net Loss Clouds Lawson’s Q1 Report

    Lawson’s Q4 Profits Slammed by Investment Writeoffs, Sales Up Though

    New Customer Sales Pump Up Lawson Software’s Q3

    Lawson Debuts New Offerings at User Conference

    Lawson Updates ERP, Unveils SaaS Plans at User Conference



                         Post this story to del.icio.us
                   Post this story to Digg
        Post this story to Slashdot

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Tags: Tags: mtfh_rc, Volume 19, Number 22 -- June 14, 2010

    Sponsored by
    Krengeltech

    When it comes to consuming web APIs on your IBM i, your options often boil down to one of two things:

    First, you end up having to rely on a variety of open source and non-RPG solutions. This adds developer complexity, taking away time that could have been better spent invested in other projects. Of course, open source software is free, but generally comes at the cost of no professional support, which adds an element of risk in your production environment. RXS is completely professionally supported, and is complemented by a staff of trained IBM i developers who can address your nuanced development challenges, head on.

    Second, if you choose not to pursue an open-source solution, you’re often left having to shake up your current program architecture with proprietary software, external dependencies, and partial RPG implementations – many of which are sub-par compared to RPG-XML Suite’s wide range of features. RXS aims to simplify the efforts of developers with tools like code generators, useful commands, and subprocedures written in 100% RPG – no Java. Because they are entirely RPG, the RXS subprocedures are easy to add to new or existing ILE programs and architecture, helping to cut your development time. RPG-XML Suite offers powerful capabilities in an accessible, easy-to-implement format.

    With RPG-XML Suite, you can accomplish a variety of complex tasks, such as:

    • Calling REST and SOAP web services from your IBM i
    • Offering APIs from your IBM i
    • Creating JSON & XML
    • Parsing JSON & XML
    • Text manipulation, Base64 encoding/decoding, CCSID handling, hashing and encryption functions, and more.

    To try RXS for yourself, we recommend a free proof of concept, which not only gives you access to all of RPG-XML Suite’s subprocedures and utilities but also includes a tailor-made software demonstration that can be used as a starting point for your future API implementations.

    For a free proof of concept, contact us at sales@krengeltech.com, or visit our website for more information.

    Share this:

    • Reddit
    • Facebook
    • LinkedIn
    • Twitter
    • Email

    Admin Alert: How To Run NetServer from the Green Screen in 10 Minutes Synergivity Brings i/OS Change Management to US Market

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

TFH Volume: 19 Issue: 22

This Issue Sponsored By

    Table of Contents

    • Two Top i Concerns and a Bunch of Little Ones
    • IBM Puts More Power7 Iron Through the Java Test Paces
    • Open Source EGL Means an RPG Generator Is Possible
    • Mad Dog 21/21: Market Cap and Propeller Beanies
    • Which Way to HA? Hardware, Software, or Both?
    • Server and Storage Array Sales Rebound in Q1, Says Gartner
    • IBM Cuts Memory Conversion/Activation Prices on Older Power 570s
    • Activist Investor Icahn Puts the Squeeze on Lawson Software
    • IBM Launches Application Runtime Expert for i
    • Apple’s iOS 4: That’s Exactly What I Was Thinking!

    Content archive

    • The Four Hundred
    • Four Hundred Stuff
    • Four Hundred Guru

    Recent Posts

    • Guild Mortgage Takes The 20-Year Option For Modernization
    • IBM i Licensing, Part 3: Can The Hardware Bundle Be Cheaper Than A Smartphone?
    • Guru: The Finer Points of Exit Points
    • Big Blue Tweaks IBM i Pricing Ahead Of Subscription Model
    • We Still Want IBM i On The Impending Power E1050
    • DRV Brings More Automation to IBM i Message Monitoring
    • Managed Cloud Saves Money By Cutting System And People Overprovisioning
    • Multiple Security Vulnerabilities Patched on IBM i
    • Four Hundred Monitor, June 22
    • IBM i PTF Guide, Volume 24, Number 25

    Subscribe

    To get news from IT Jungle sent to your inbox every week, subscribe to our newsletter.

    Pages

    • About Us
    • Contact
    • Contributors
    • Four Hundred Monitor
    • IBM i PTF Guide
    • Media Kit
    • Subscribe

    Search

    Copyright © 2022 IT Jungle

    loading Cancel
    Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
    Email check failed, please try again
    Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.