The assembly business at Dover is bleeding so badly and the prospects so bleak that they decide to give it up to an investment company that probably has no business being in this business?

Francisco Partners smells like a Gordon Gecko breakup scenario to me....either that or "there's a sucker born every minute" comes to mind.

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Cmiller

#43717

UIC Sold | 1 September, 2006

Actually I think the cyclical nature of the business does not fit Dovers model very well. They sold a number of companies from thier portfolio. The new owners are supposed to make some significant investments in Universal so it may very well be a good thing for them. I have talked to a number of people there over the past few weeks and they are all excited about the change.

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Stephen

#43720

UIC Sold | 1 September, 2006

I was told that someone at UIC had (mistakenly) thought it was a good idea to get more done in China.

I was also told that Dover would not sell to another machine manufacturer because that would probably mean the end of UIC. I think that is good of Dover to try and make sure that whomever bought UIC would look after the employees. A lot of companies wouldn't care.

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Fastek

#43724

UIC Sold | 1 September, 2006

Stephen-

I'm curious about your statement regarding someone mistakenly thinking it would be a good idea to get more done in China.

I fail to see the mistake in such an approach. Consider if DEK or MPM felt that way a few years ago. They would both be out of business today.

In my mind if you are a manufacturer of equipment and you put your head in the sand and refuse to go "wherever" the business goes......you are doomed.

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gregp

#43731

UIC Sold | 1 September, 2006

The irony is a lot of Chinese don't want to buy the UIC machines made in China. They demand to have the machines that are made in Binghamton. This is what was told to me by UIC brass and was not foreseen. Not that it necessarily has anything to do with the current circumstance...I just find it interesting.

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Cmiller

#43732

UIC Sold | 1 September, 2006

I find it interesting as well. China may end up as thier biggest market. It is common on consumer electronics that the people in China do not want goods made in China because of perceived poor quality.

On the other hand, if UIC did not source some stuff there you would not be able to buy an AC-30 for $150K in America.

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Stephen

#43756

UIC Sold | 5 September, 2006

I thought I had replied to this last week but I guess it didn't go through. I was talking about a specific incident where they sourced some precision parts. The samples were perfect but no one asked how many had been scrapped to get those few. When they put in an order for quantity they got poor quality.

You go out of business faster if you are a "lemming".

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Steve Thomas

#43760

UIC Sold | 5 September, 2006

"The new owners are supposed to make some significant investments in Universal so it may very well be a good thing for them. I have talked to a number of people there over the past few weeks and they are all excited about the change."

I have been through two of these personally, and in my experience what investment groups tell their new employees up front and what they do later are two entirely different things. I'd be looking for work, which is exactly what the investors are trying to curtail (for the time being).

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bobpan

#43762

UIC Sold | 5 September, 2006

Steve, You hit it right on the head!!!!

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Bill

#43765

UIC Sold | 5 September, 2006

FYI: Most of the MPM machines that sell in China and not made in China.

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Machine Designer

#43800

UIC Sold | 7 September, 2006

Tsk tsk, UIC... how the mighty have fallen... now owned by financial partners who do not know the industry and who will be eager to recoup an investment in an aging manufacturing industry which sorely needs new and strong global management... Not mention that UIC realestate and payroll is a lot of overhead for someone who decides they need to compete. Let's just say that I wouldn't want to be selling for that company for a living right now.

Once employees become increasingly aware that this is their lot, the best ones usually start to leave and the companies bleed to death by technical attrition. I hope their resume's are up to date, but it's not like the city of Binghampton has much to offer anymore either.

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Rob

#43804

UIC Sold | 7 September, 2006

Have some perspective - not all financial companies are asset strippers.

Franciso Partners are backed by Sequuoia Capital who backed little known minnows like Apple, Yahoo, 3Com, Cisco & Google at the early stage.

Who knows what the future hold for UIC etc, but they may well actually be in better hands now.

Good luck to all of the employees involved - I hope it works out for you all.

Rob.

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Machine Designer

#43809

UIC Sold | 7 September, 2006

... none of which are manufacturing anything today

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JOE

#43839

UIC Sold | 8 September, 2006

if you took the time to look at their portfolio, many of the companies they own are product producing companies, and many are in the electronics and semiconductor industry, maybe they will pump some life into a company who has needed some for a few years now.

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Mika

#43840

UIC Sold | 8 September, 2006

Hi, I can understand why a lot of people are concerned about this deal. I have some little experience of this. I used to work for an electronic manufactory company 5.000+ employee (divided on several sites) and it was sucked up by an investor Corp. We have never been so happy, because the first thing they did; was to get rid of the old management and put some new ideas into the company. Together with this they also pumped in a lot of money and hire more high skilled engineers etc. into the company. Right now they are doing very well and the future looks great. If this have not happened, the company would have gone to bed with a Chineese pillow.

Ahh, I almost forget to tell You why I left and start working for another company in the same business: I love to do fly-fishing in my home area up in the north and it was to long to travel between my birth place and the city I used to live in.

So, I have to agree with [JOE], but this is not necessarily the right way to go in every circumstances! /Sincerly Ps. I am sorry for my poor english & grammar Ds.

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Steve Thomas

#43845

UIC Sold | 10 September, 2006

Quick question...Mika, are you in the US?

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Mika

#43868

UIC Sold | 12 September, 2006

No, Europe. /Sincerly

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