The CEO’s office
BIG Corp
Fifth Avenue
New York, NY
February 14, 2016
FAO CEO, Widget Corp
I hope this letter finds you well. Please forgive me if this seems a little rash, but I have something I’ve kept secret for many years and I just can’t suppress it any longer.
In the past we’ve been competitors; we’ve competed over business strategy; we’ve fought for market share. And we’ve battled to attract and retain the best talent. But now I must concede that we’ve admired you for many years – and that we’ve long been harboring desires of a closer union.
I’ll never forget the moment I first set eyes on your 2013 annual report. Your CEO letter was almost poetic. And the long-term vision you articulated – to make Widget Corp a global leader built on values, a solid strategy and clear targets – still resonates with me to this day.
Your clear focus and the faultless execution of your business strategy are particularly laudable. And I couldn’t help noticing that your focus on emerging markets and your recent IT infrastructure upgrades have generated particularly impressive results of late.
Make no mistake: this is no flash-in-the-pan romance. Since the beginning of my tenure, I’ve admired you from afar at investor conferences and industry trade fairs. And I’ve often professed my admiration for your strategic vision to those closest to me on the board – naturally, you come up a lot in conversation. Indeed, if I’m being completely honest, we talk about you a lot over here. And we like to think you think about us from time to time too.
You see, I know we’re not meant to like each other, or care too obsessively about what each other does. But I don’t think we can deny it any longer: we have the potential to generate significant operational synergies. There: I said it – operational synergies!
And it’s not just me who has noticed – my investment bankers think so, too. You see, we’ve been talking, and both they and I really think we could be great together, which is why I’m sending you this unsolicited advance. I know you’ve been coy in the past, but the admiration must be mutual. If you saw us as an inferior competitor, you wouldn’t have poached our former chief operating officer and head of marketing last year.
It’s not just our heart that is driving this advance, however; so is our head. I know the critics will say that most mergers destroy shareholder value. And you will tell your shareholders we’re undervaluing you and your long-term prospects. But let’s not play games. Our firms can make it work in the long run. Indeed, we’ve already got a plan in place for post-deal integration to keep those synergies rolling down the years.
In view of this, I think it would be irresponsible to delay our union any longer. We’ve already wasted so much time. Think how much rationalizing we could do and all the cost savings we could achieve if we were together!
Yours admiringly,
CEO, BIG Corp
This article appeared in the Spring 2016 issue of IR Magazine
