CGI is not for sale

When you’re a teenager girl and no one asks you out, either two things. Your physical appearance puts you in the Susan Boyle class and most people would guess that you live with approximately 12 cats, or you’re a total knockout and no one dare to ask you out because they know you’ll turn them down just by the way you grin.

In one very good interview I gave to the Financial Post recently, I said that CGI has never been approached for a merger because everyone knows we’re not for sale. I like to think that our more of the same (MoTS) strategy will ultimately deliver more value to the shareholder (me in particular) and we can grow this thing slowly without taking unnecessary risks.

I don’t want to be in a position where I have to sell knickknacks like Perot has to do now. Now that those guys report to a hardware outlet, guess what happens when Perot consultants do let’s say a strategic plan to overhaul your infrastructure. You’re right, they’ll want to shove a truckload of blade servers up your butt so that the local VP from Dell get a huge fucking bonus this year. Everyone has an agenda. Same thing with IBM, their codernauts want to lock you in a long-term mainframe service plan along with their biased consulting expertise.

You can’t be all things to all people and pretend you have your customer interests at heart.

Of course what I don’t say is that a merger would put me in a position where I would have to report to someone, and when you’re a CEO this is like a total demotion. We all have egos, don’t we? I would rather retire, go back to Pembroke and grow a subsidized product like pigs or corn.

But I have to admit, I’d like to have offers on the table for CGI. Just for the pleasure of being considered and then politely say no. Or yes. But no one calls. Is it because we’re so heavily in the Canadian market which is considered a niche from the U.S. perspective, or is it because we’re a prized jewel whose value puts us above the rest? I’d like to think the latter, but I have my share of doubts like everyone else.