Ouch for all concerned
I have witnessed a few acquisitions over the last 15 years or so and the biggest mistakes acquirers make is replacing the senior management so soon after acquisition. Clearly they have their own guys waiting in the wings, but 8 weeks - that in my view is far too quick. I know Updata and know Richard - both former directors of Updata set the values that Updata - in my view at least - differentiated itself on from the plethora of other network operators in the public sector space. From a customer perspective, cost is always an absolute driver for tender award, but call it naivety if you will, customers still need to like to do business with you, some success is still personality driven. With the senior management gone, what is Updata's/Capita's personality now? I fear it will have none and they will just become another one of the many vanilla network companies out there today. The remaining brand equity Updata has in the market will diminish as quickly as Capita's promise to keep it.