That makes the vague claim in http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-18/software-developer-allen-systems-files-for-bankruptcy-protection make more sense: "The Naples, Florida-based company listed assets of as much as $500 million" -- usually I see "listed assets of $x",not "of as much as $x". Sounds like nobody believes the numbers. Might also explain why the Chief Restructuring Officer on http://www.asg.com/Company/Executive-Management.aspx looks so depressed.
On Sat, Mar 7, 2015 at 9:21 PM, Mitch < [email protected]> wrote: > Everyone: > > Yep, that was Art. When I worked there, since I was pretty up the totem > pole, I called him Art. I remember that as he was buying up other > companies when I worked there, he would have me go to the new acquisition > and have the owner of the company pick me up (no rental car and have them > put me up at their house (no hotel). He told me that his desire was to > have the biggest catalog of software for a privately held software company > in the world. A lot of the software companies he bought was at the end of > it's useful life, so it was just to have the product name in his catalog. > He told his finance department and sales management that they were to get > at least a letter of intent from any prospect. He would then tell the bank > that ASG had sold a contract and have that added to the value of the > company. It was truly weird. > > > > > Mitch > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: zMan <[email protected]> > To: IBM-MAIN <[email protected]> > Sent: Sat, Mar 7, 2015 8:11 pm > Subject: Re: bloomberg article on ASG and Chpater 11 > > > A friend used to work at ASG, is out of mainframes now. I forwarded this > story > and got the following response: > > >"MISTER Allen" (NO one was allowed to call > him "Art") once sent out an > email to everyone complaining about the rigors of > flying all over the world > on his private jet, and how he'd like it if people > sent chocolates to his > plane, as long as they were "high quality Belgian > chocolates". Yes, at > their own expense. > >When you look up "megalomaniac" in > the dictionary, there's a drawing of > Mr. Allen. > > Other ASG stories are > legendary, including folks having to requisition > rubber bands and having them > shipped from HQ *in lots of 10*. > > Given that Art's wife was apparently equally > loony and was CFO, I guess the > bankruptcy isn't a surprise. The good > news: > http://www.asg.com/Company/Executive-Management.aspx no longer shows > any > folks named "Allen", > -- > zMan -- "I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid > to use > it" > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For > IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to > [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, > send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN > -- zMan -- "I've got a mainframe and I'm not afraid to use it" ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
