Bruce Wiener, formerly of BW Reprographics, joins ABC Imaging’s business development team

In a Press Release issued by ABC Imaging this morning, ABC Imaging says this at the beginning of the Press Release …

Washington, DC – August 25, 2011 – ABC Imaging, a leading print technology and document management company serving the A/E/C market, announced today that Bruce Wiener, founder and President of BW Reprographics, has joined the company as Senior Vice President Corporate Development.

Mr. Weiner, an industry veteran with more than 25 years of experience, founded BW Repro in 2003. The company served clients primarily in New York City and the surrounding region.

“This is a significant strategic move for us”, said Medi Falsafi, President & CEO of ABC Imaging. “Bruce Wiener will add additional value to our already talented management team By joining ABC Imaging, Bruce also enables us to expand our presence in New York.”

You can read the full Press Release at this Internet address:

http://tinyurl.com/3goa76y

Joel’s comments:

In my mind, the Press Release ABC Imaging released this morning left a lot of unanswered questions.

The Press Release indicates nothing more than Bruce Wiener (who was the founder and CEO of BW Reprographics) has joined ABC’s business development team. Inasmuch as Bruce was formerly an officer of the Louis Frey Co [a company that went Chapter 7, years ago, and a company that had extensive operations in the New York area and extensive FM operations (and its FM operations were not just in the New York area, but in many other parts of the U.S.)] and a reprographics industry veteran with 25 years of experience, I would imagine that most industry people would consider Bruce to be a “prime catch” for a senior business development position. Congratulations to Bruce on his new relationship with ABC Imaging.

The Press Release made no mention, whatsoever, about the situation of BW Reprographics. And, when I contacted a senior officer of ABC to ask further questions about BW Reprographics and about the nature of the transaction (assuming there was a transaction) between BW Reprographics, the response I got was, “I have supplied all of the information that I am aware of. Sorry I cannot answer the questions below.” (He was referring to a list of questions I sent in an e-mail, this morning, after I received the Press Release about Bruce joining ABC’s business development team.)

The remaining questions I have, and it looks like these will, unfortunately, go unanswered:

1. Will BW Reprographics continue in business under its own name?

2. If the answer to question #1 is “no”, then will BW Reprographics no longer be an operating reprographics company? And, if “no” is the answer to that question, what’s going to happen to BW Reprographics, LLC (the company!)?

3. Other than the “people asset” that Bruce Wiener represents, did ABC acquire any other BW Reprographics assets? Here, I’m referring to “goodwill, customer list, FM agreements, equipment, etc.”

I remain curious about the Press Release, because, earlier on this blog, I posted a note about BW Reprographics and ABC Imaging, and, in that particular post, I pointed my blog-readers to a document I placed in my Google Docs library. That document was a snapshot of a web-page that I pdf’d off of the Internet. That web-page, apparently, was an ABC “internal-HR” web-page (http://abcimaginghr.com/employees/). What it said on that web-page, at the time I pdf’d a copy of that page, was this, “ABC Imaging Acquires BW Reprographics in New York”. Later that same afternoon, I received an e-mail from a senior officer of ABC telling me, basically, that my characterization of the transaction was not correct. (Actually, the characterization I used was the exact wording that I found on that ABC internal-HR web-page.) That officer went on to say that ABC Imaging acquired (only) “certain assets”. Perhaps that officer was referring to Bruce (as an asset of BW Reprographics)? By the way, don’t bother looking on the Internet for what I found. That web-page no longer carries that headline. But, you can still see it if you click on the link, which will take you to the document that remains in my Google Docs library. As I said earlier, I was informed that that headline was not correct. I’m not providing the link to suggest that that’s not true. I’m providing the link so that my blog-readers will know that I didn’t “imagine it”!

Here’s that link:

http://tinyurl.com/3fnz8u2

Okay, that’s all I know, and it is unlikely that I will do another post about Bruce Wiener or BW Reprographics [unless someone steps to the plate and fills me in on the details as to what has happened to BW Reprographics (the company.)]

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Further comment:

This has nothing, at all, to do with ABC Imaging or BW Reprographics. Just wanted to say that it is not uncommon for companies to hire former officer/owners of former competitors, whether on a “contract” basis or on an “employee” basis. Not too long ago, there was a company known as “DigiPlot” (DP). DP operated two locations in South Florida, one in Boca Raton and one in Ft Lauderdale. The principal owner/ manager of DP was Hamid Sharif. Very nice, smart, experienced guy. (I worked with Hamid when we were both at T-Square in Miami, FL.) As a result of the deep recession that impacted Florida’s A/E/C Industry, DP closed its doors. It was not sold to anyone. It’s my understanding that Hamid, right after DP closed, entered into some sort of business development (customer introduction) agreement with a large reprographics company, under which Hamid was entitled to receive commissions (or something like commissions) on business he brought to the large reprographics company. Hamid, having been in his own business for years, certainly had lots of customer contacts. My understanding is that Hamid was not formally employed by the large reprographics company, that he was engaged on a “contract” basis (non-employee.) I don’t know if Hamid is still doing that for that company. The moral of this story, presuming I got it right, is that a company does not always have to buy its competitor to acquire some or all of the business that company was doing. Sometimes it makes more sense, financially and operationally, to simply hire (contract basis or employee basis) one or more of the owner/principals of the competitor. After all, the reprographics business has always been driven by relationships with customers.