In Roman Catholic theology, limbo is that afterlife condition for those who die without being assigned to hell. For employees in companies waiting for the post-acquisition dust to settle such as Genentech, or for those waiting for part of the organization to be halved off, such as Barclays Global Investors (BGI) with its iShares division, limbo is a pretty good description of what it’s like to be inside the organization.… Read the rest
[Through the Glass Door] Does Art Levinson Stay at Genentech?
With the Roche’s acquisition of Genentech finalized the next obvious set of question surrounds who stays and who goes.
More specifically, does somebody like CEO Art Levinson, arguably the singular driving force since 1995 – albeit playing the point on an executive group that behaves from a distance like a real team – stay?
The quick answer is not likely .… Read the rest
[Through the Glass Door] Genentech’s Future Looks Much Like Chiron’s Recent Past
From the headline of Tom Abate’s story in the San Francisco Chronicle “Roche-Genentech deal called close, with offer raised”, folks at 1 DNA Way in South San Francisco should take a look across the bay at Chiron’s former campus in Emeryville to see their likely future.
As noted elsewhere (see the “Land O’Spin series on best practices of assessment on this blog), one of the best predictors for future behavior is to look at past patterns of behavior.… Read the rest