Gulp

Its a new world.
I can't be arsed anymore

 

Actually I've been mainly off on the Fiat Coupe forum where I've gone from
being banned to being vice-president of the UK owners' club ... obviously
there's been other stuff in-between - I didn't just leap from one to the
other.

I can however assure you that no real work was undertaken.

Last year I did some work, but it aided my long-term laziness goal in that
it was so fundamental to a new system which is being deployed and so complex
that, if it manages the final hurdle and goes live, I can look forward to 20
years of being utterly indispensible, yet having no real work to do.

The real Vegas jackpot would be if the system went live, then HP made me
redundant (with, say, 6 months' money tax-free), thus financing my move to
EKS status, working for £1,200/day tending to the hydra that I myself
birthed.

More likely, of course, is that the system will fall down dead, HP will fire
me on a technicality (doing 3.5 hours worth of work in 6 years, for example)
and I'll end up sitting in a sleeping bag in the centre of Newcastle with a
dog on a bit-of-string lead, begging for spare change. But, hey, you have
to take the rough with the smooth.

--
AndrewR, D.Bot (Celeritas)
Aprilia RSV-1000R, Honda VFR750F-L, Kawasaki ZX-6R, Fiat Coupe 20v Turbo
BOTAFOT#2,ITJWTFO#6,UKRMRM#1/13a,MCT#1,DFV#2,SKoGA#0 (and KotL)
BotToS#5,SBS#25,IbW#34, DS#5, COSOC# Suspended, KotTFSTR#
The speccy Geordie twat.

 

I agree it would be more unusual, but not unheard of. If the supplier is
owed a lot of money by the big customer, and has access to capital, it may
be beneficial to buy a poorly managed company at a huge discount. This
would allow the producer to take control of the supply chain and pocket the
retail mark-up. The alternative might be the need to write off a large debt
and to lose the primary outlet for the product.

I'd need to do some research, but I'm sure this type of thing has happened
in the brewery industry, where smallish, family run businesses have taken
over parts of corporate giants after an initial period of sub-contracting.

 

Ah, yes. Thanks for that, newbie...