Tone Parsons

Yesterday, my company announced that we had purchased yet another company.

This one was a bargain at a cool $1.6 Billion (yes… that’s Billion with a capitol B).

When I was first hired here, our stock was worth about $3.92 a share. Today, it’s up $5 from Friday at $68.65. Damn… I wish I hadn’t sold my stock at $29.74!

One nice thing about the company we purchased… they’re in another country, so we didn’t have to deal with the SEC on the acquisition (you know you company is doing well when you have to get the FCC’s blessing before buying another company).

So… now you’re asking yourself, what do we do? Well… I’ll tell you… kinda. We offer products and services that you probably don’t use and sell them to companies that you probably don’t work for. If you’ve ever seen the utility guy (gas, electric, or water) come by, and you’ve seen that he has a little computer in his hand, well, we probably made it. There’s most likely a little module (an ERT) on your gas, electric, or water meter… we made that too.

If you live in Pittsburgh, Dallas, Richmond, or one of several other major cities… there’s probably a strange white box hanging off a light pole in your neighborhood… we made that too (it’ll read your meter as often as the utility wants… once a month, once a day, every 5 minutes… whatever). If the utility company drives a van around and it automatically reads your meters… yup, that’s us again.

Of course, I no longer have much to do with the money making side of things. I did in my last position (6 years as a Solutions Engineer). Now I’m a Senior Web Developer (and I’m much happier!).