Merger Rumor

October 19, 2007

So I heard this rumor… and of course I have no way of substantiating it.

But I’m real curious so I call one of the major actors in this would be drama, a VP of Marketing in fact, who tells me he’s in a meeting. I ask him to comment on the rumor. He repeats that he is in a meeting and he has to go. Now.

Didn’t even say good bye.

So I go online and quickly ascertain that the Executive Chairman of one of the companies involved in this rumor is also on the Board of Directors of both companies, who are said to be merging.

The companies are said to be merging as equals.

I wish I hadn’t slept through investigative journalism 101.

I also wish it wasn’t Friday after 5pm, when no self-respecting rumor mill types are answering their phones.

I did reach a former Board member of one of the companies, who “couldn’t really comment” but noted the same thing I did, the part about the common ownership across the two companies.

So I can’t say who started this rumor, and I certainly can’t say for sure if it’s real, but if the rumor was that NexTone and ReefPoint were going to merge, and that David Walsh of One Equity Partners (the private equity investing arm of JP Morgan Chase) was on the Board of both companies as well as the acting Executive Chairman of NexTone, would that be too much of a stretch?