Mind Numbing

What a slow and boring week… can’t believe the lack of news in our world....

If only that was true.

For those of you who follow along in the news of the industry, this past week the auction for the company I currently am employed at (Vitro America) happened and it continued to the be the most surreal story that even Hollywood would write off as “too unbelievable.” After an amazingly competitive auction which featured more back and forth’s than a grand slam tennis final, Sun Capital outlasted the fine folks from Grey Mountain to win. This result now once again starts the process of industry change and probable consolidation as there’s not a lot of geographic differences between the companies. Now I can go on and on with this, I think anyone who knows me, knows I am bitterly disappointed (actually mortally depressed is a better term) over the result because of several reasons. The biggest is I really believe what Grey Mountain would’ve brought to the industry would’ve been spectacular. Breathtaking and groundbreaking plans to operate and innovate, and to be a part of that would have been epic. And quite frankly the momentum that was bubbling up at Vitro before all of this unintended collateral damage junk was thrown at us was significant and I really wanted to see where it could go. So that’s a big reason for my sadness, never knowing what “could’ve been” if we got to continue like planned.

Hey that’s life right? David threw one heck of a rock but Goliath has a harder head than anyone can imagine. So for now we’ll see how this will progress. Consolidation in our world has been a fact of life for many years and things like this are not a surprise. The industry has evolved and will continue to do so until it finds calmer skies. And as for going forward, we’ll see how this all hashes out. There’s a lot of people that will be affected by this, and we’ll join a crowded field of folks from US Aluminum, Zeledyne etc that are already out there. As I have railed on here many, many times before, there’s a ton of talent out there that can help upgrade and advance revenue generation and that will surely be the case when all of this comes clear in the coming weeks. I’m sure they’ll be much more to say about this in the coming weeks, as for now, for me and many others it continues to be just mind numbing.

LINKS of the WEEK

-- This guy was bragging on a plane that he had poisonous gas with him. Yep what a brain surgeon.

-- Kind of wild story on finding a credit card lost in the ocean 25 years later.

-- As a good friend of mine said after reading this article about the dangers of energy drinks- “isn’t that a no brainer” Yep, I’d think so.

VIDEO of the WEEK

A great video of the week from my friend Steve O… A Dad drops his daughter while trying to catch a foul ball… simply comical. The girl is OK by the way… the Dad I am sure is getting abused…daily.