Acquisitions

Peter Burrows offers insights into high level business, where personality matters more than economics, as he explores the mammoth HP-Compaq merger. Most mergers fail to make money or to produce the promised "synergies" so, he asks, why - other than ego - do CEOs pursue them? Though stylistically somewhat trite, this book successfully explores the HP Board's decision to approve the merger, with Walter B. Hewlett's vote in favor, and his subsequent lonely, ultimately quixotic battle against it. The most contentious issues in contemporary business are all here: shareholder rights and value vs. CEO power; employee-oriented cultures vs. "re-engineering;" corporate integrity vs. sharp practice; and the interesting spectacle of a ruthless, hard-headed female CEO pitted against a sensitive, cello-playing man. The author says Hewlett-Packard executives were told not to speak with him after he quoted merger critics in Business Week, so there is an inevitable Walter Hewlett bias. We found this to be a very good read, even a must read, for corporate warriors.

This is a great book and an easy read. Burrows makes you feel like he is sitting across from you as he discusses the merger, the HP Way, Carly and Walter Hewlett's motivations. He clearly brings recognition to the HP Way and how it made HP a great company, and the dangers involved in destroying HP's identity by merging with Compaq. Why would a company with a suffering PC division want to buy a PC giant that was suffering even more, in a market where consumers have stopped buying PC's? "Two garbage trucks colliding". And yet Burrows gives credence to Carly's abilities and talent and clearly offers both sides of the story.

The best part of this book is the general business understanding it offers of mergers gone wrong. This is a prime example and well portrayed.

I enjoyed this book as it contained substantial original reporting that is not duplicative of the work that others have done. I would have liked to see more material concerning bottom line issues. The bottom line issue that has the most resonance for me is the Wall Street assessment, both now, and at the time of the merger, that HP's non-printing businesses have no value on the Street. In other words, if HP were to be bought by some other firm, the Wall Street consensus is that such an acquirer should simply eliminate the other businesses. HP's value is actually less as currently structured because eliminating these other businesses has closing costs associated with this shutdown activity.

The clear implication here is that Walter Hewlett was absolutely correct in opposing this merger, since the result clearly is that 20 billion dollars was completely wasted, and precious time is still being lost on ineffective strategies to revive these businesses. With the benefit of hindsight we can say that Walter Hewlett should have been given more credit than he received, even from Burrows, for opposing this capital and job destruction, even in the face of Fiorina's personal attacks.

This book should have pointed out that these at-risk businesses can still be saved, particularly the server and server-related businesses, with the appointment of proper management by the Board of Directors. What they need to be looking for this time is not someone whose picture has been on the cover of "Fortune" magazine, as was Carly's before she was hired, but someone with the knowledge and interest in saving HP. Carly not only does not have the engineering expertise, she simply creates the impression that she has no interest in HP's existing businesses, even printing, which she has left to wither on the vine in a new investment sense.

HP has had a computer server business for over 25 years. It is a big market, roughly 50 billion yearly and rising. HP has 27%, but has failed to gain any share at all from the collapse of Sun Microsystems. Instead, customers are transfering to IBM and Dell, which should be a big wake-up call for the Board. Dell Computer is number one in market position for the key Linux server business, perhaps because of HP's totally insular and uninformed approach to this market. A lot of hard work by HP employees went into building a formerly successful server business, it is senseless to discard this potentially excellent business because Carly is more interested in trying to sell MP3s at Starbucks, something that will never generate much profit.

I would have liked to have seen a clear statement in this book that if in the summer of 2004 if HP's non-printer businesses are still worth zero, that the HP Board of Directors needs hire a new CEO. Doubtless they prefer to have a charming dialogue with Carly about her boneheaded hipster ideas involving HP products in Starbucks rather than argue with some computer nerd about computer enterprise/service-provider product investments, but I would argue that being true to their responsibilities requires that they do the later, whether they like it or not. It would have been good for Burrows' book to say so.

Dr. Ward's book is clearly written, and based on fantastic concepts. My eldest son is autistic, and between research and personal observation, I have seen professionals use many of the techniques Dr. Ward describes. By using this book, you will be, essentially, performing as a speech therapist for thirty minutes a day.

If you are looking for insight in a book like this, you are going to have to be willing to open your mind and accept that some of your personal concepts will have to be changed, that some facts will go against your personal understanding. Unfortunately, Dr. Ward presents both those facts and her personal opinions in the same light, making them indistinguishable.

As I said, the basis for her book is fantastic, and most of what she says is based on hard fact. A good bit, though, is based on her personal opinions on matters such as imagination, make believe, and electronic teaching techniques, and some of those opinions run contrary to established clinical studies and facts.

Read this book, but don't take its facts as being set in stone. Instead, consult other sources for your facts, make up your own mind on what is appropriate, and use Dr. Ward's book as a basic outline for a program for teaching your child.

I was given this book when my son was 3 months old and have been recommending it and loaning it out to friends ever since. THe focus is on speech development, but it has great ideas for play and interaction at every stage of infancy thru age 4. While the author specializes in children with speech difficulties, this program is great for all children. My son is now 24 months old and ahead in speech for his age. He seemed to learn to speak really quickly and now many of his sentences are pretty long and complex, e.g. at the playground yesterday: "Mummy, that boy is really upset because his mother is going away", or "Mummy, please can you come and see what I'm doing". I attribute this pretty much to the BabyTalk program because the principles here have really determined how his Dad and I have interacted with him ever since we got the book. Being able to communicate really well already not only makes his life less frustrating (he has only ever had a handful of tantrums), it also sets him in good stead for the future academically. I had no background in early childhood development so it's been most helpful to have such a thorough and practical book to accompany his development. There are vital principles to learn about playing with, listening to, and talking to your child that are fundamental but easy to apply, and clearly presented here. It also warns you against very common ways of talking to young children (pointless questions, correcting, asking the child to say this or that, amongst others), which turn out to be quite harmful to their speech development. In addition to giving me needed ideas about structuring our play and interactions (I ran out of ideas and sometimes became a little bored before reading the great ideas in the book), it gives you the background in cognitive and sensory development that helps you understand why they are the way they are and what's going on inside their heads. It gives you a great respect for the child and their ability to learn. There are ideas for age appropriate games, conversation, books, and toys at each stage of development. It's based solidly on research and clinical experience. This is a gem of a book and I am so thankful that I was given it early on, but it doesn't matter at what stage you get started. Go ahead and get it!

Along with "Baby Signs," this book should be on the shelf of any person who wants to help boost their child's communication skills. The author advocates a daily 1/2 hour playtime during which you eliminate all distractions so that you can have one on one time with your baby/toddler/preschooler to play with her toys and focus on talking with her. One of the main points presented is that you should never outright correct a child's speech, ask them to repeat words, or ask them questions demanding an answer as this can make them feel belittled and actually hinder their speech development. Instead you should simply repeat the word back to them in its correct form and use short, direct sentences so that they can follow the words.

"Baby Talk" is full of great advice for helping your child to listen and understand. There are suggestions for toys and books for each age group (the program is for children birth to age four) and it also lists signs to look for in the case that she might need a speech therapist.

As a Deaf mom with an 18 year old boy, I thought this book is the best signing book for kids his age. The interactive board is stupendous. My son loves the pictures and can sign ALL of them. Yes, it is not a reference book, it is for kids. The reason why I give it 4 stars and not 5, is because of the ring binding makes it too easy for kids to rip out pages, but the book itself is champ.

This has been an incredible tool for my family to effectively communicate with our babies and toddlers through the use of sign language. We have used this book for 3 of our 4 children and would have used it for the other one; however, it wasn't in production.

As a mother of four, I highly recommend Sign & Say to any parent, especially babies around 8 months old. Congrats to Meredith Layton on her achievement of a tactile and well-illustrated resource!!!

This basic intro to signing is wonderful! My two hearing children were almost obsessed with the book when I got it about a year ago. It comes with a felt board and velcro pictures of the actual objects (such as ball or cracker) the book teaches signs for. Very clear, easy to understand. What a wonderful reference as well as fun children's book.