A hostile takeover by a shareholders group allowed them to put new management into place at a company where I was recently employed. It was not a pretty scene.

They were focused on shareholder return on investment and implemented immediate cost-cutting measures. It makes total sense from the capital point of view.

Unfortunantly, this meant an immediate reduction in headcount from every department including IT. We had to support the same number of workstations and employees with one less body.

There were other long-term changes that involved replacing systems and procedure but the biggest immediate efect of the takeover was that it put everybody into a state of fear for their jobs.

The cultural shock was that the old mangement was focused on employee morale while the new management only cared about profit. Oh well, that's business!