After the Merger, Who’s In, Who’s Out

The pace of mergers and acquisitions is expected to continue this year, according to FactSet Mergerstat, a company that tracks corporate deal-making. That means even more CIOs will find themselves either working on massive integration projects or looking for new jobs. Here are a few CIOs who were affected by recent mergers:

Former CIO Mike Stout departed Sprint, which merged with Nextel this past August. Nextel CIO Dick LeFave stepped into the job as CIO of the new company, Sprint Nextel.

Jason Glazier, who was senior VP, CTO and chief e-commerce officer at Lincoln Financial, made way for Chuck Cornelio, former executive VP of technology and insurance services at Jefferson-Pilot, after the merger of the companies was announced in October 2005. Cornelio heads IT and shared services at the combined company, Lincoln Financial Group.

Jerry Bartlett stepped in as CIO of Ameritrade, after Ameritrade completed its acquisition of TD Waterhouse in January.

At press time, there was no word on what’s next for Richard Rzasa, who was CIO of TD Waterhouse.

How do you know whether you have a shot at the CIO job when your company merges with another? When merged companies choose a CIO, “the conclusion people tend to draw is that the CIO who didn’t get the job is not as good as the one who did,” says Shawn Banerji, a recruiter with Russell Reynolds. That isn’t necessarily the case.

Corporate politics and the surviving CEO’s view of IT plays a role in determining which CIO will stay, says Banerji. The CEO usually wants to preserve his management team. But since he also has to appease the other company, he may think: IT is important but not critical. I’ll hire its CIO.Age is also a consideration. Merger-related IT projects can take a year or more to complete; companies want someone who’s going to be around “to own the results,” says Banerji.

Finally, he says, plenty of CIOs, upon learning their company is merging, cash in their stock and move on.