England had a 4.8 earthquake centred on Dudley in the West Midlands at 12.55 am Tuesday. It woke both Rosemary and I. At first we thought it was a heavy lorry (or military tank, we were woken years ago by a convoy of tanks going down the road, they really shook the house), but as there was no other sound, I said earthquake. It just gently shook the house for a few seconds.
Steve
Man of leisure.
Liberty and Livelihood March
Went to catch the coach which was leaving from the local farmer at 7.30 We left for London at 8.00 with a full load. No traffic on the way into London other than a few other coaches. We were dropped of at Hyde Park Corner at around 9.30 .
Joined the waiting march at about 9.45. The march started at 10.00 am and we eventually started to move at 11. I was walking with Annie and George from the local garage. The weather was very variable, sun, and cloud with a little rain. Magnificent crowd with no trouble at all. Very few antis turned up, and these were treated with respect.
There we a wonderful mixture of people on the march, walking with a great mixture of slogans. Many of the banners carried slogans comparing Blair with Mugabe and Hitler. (Apparently Hitler banned hunting, and we know what Mugabe is doing to farming.)
The march for us ended at 2.30, and we were back to the coach by 3.30 and on our way home. No problem with the tubes. We crossed the march end at about 200 thousand. When the march finished the count had registered 400 thousand participants. This was a great success, but will Blair listen. I somehow don’t think so. So I some how think the next demonstrations will not be quite so nice.
Elevon becomes Arelon
On Friday, when I was watching cricket, the UK side of Elevon (the company I work for) was sold to its managers in a Management Buyout for 16 million US dollars. The money was provided by Alchemy.
I, Peter Willson, and John Curd were excluded from the deal and continue working for the US parent company of Elevon. Presently we still reside in the offices at the new company Arelon.
This is the press release.
6th September, 2002 – London, UK – Arelon Ltd., a leading provider of enterprise-wide business solutions in the finance, procurement and business intelligence areas, today announced the completion of a Management Buy Out (MBO). The Elevon EMEA management team and Alchemy have successfully concluded discussions with Elevon, Inc. to acquire the Elevon EMEA business.
Having achieved a consistent increase in sales and profitability during the last two years, the management of Elevon EMEA reached an agreement with its corporate executive in San Francisco to seek an investor for the MBO. Alchemy was chosen from several investment organisations because of their desire to help accelerate the company’s growth. Alchemy is the leading UK private equity investor in IT services with investments in Sanderson, Cedar, Datapoint, Radius and Phoenix.
The new company is Arelon Ltd. As part of the agreement, Arelon Ltd. will own the intellectual property of Elevon 5, Business Intelligence, and new development of STEPs specific to the EMEA region. Arelon Ltd. will also have exclusive sales, support, and marketing rights for Elevon 2, Elevon Active Financial Planning, Horizon and existing STEPs. The existing development and support teams for both Elevon 2 and Elevon 5, currently based in the UK, will continue to provide this service from the UK. The “road maps” for the development of all current and future products will be enhanced by this MBO.
“The initial investment in Arelon Ltd. is the first part of a plan to position the company as a major force in the e-business and financials market in the UK. Due diligence shows that Elevon EMEA is a profitable and well-managed organisation and will form the foundation for growth plans,” said Jon Moulton, Managing Partner of Alchemy Partners LLP.
“This MBO is being conducted from a position of strength. During the last 2 years we have seen our EMEA business grow considerably. This growth has been founded on a sound business ethic, and an enthusiasm to deliver effective business solutions to our customers. The benefits of this MBO are multifaceted but, principally, it allows us to react more effectively to our current and future customers. Our successes with Elevon 2 in 2001, expanded into the development and design of the latest STEPs products, which we intend to continue to build upon. We own Elevon 5 and Business Intelligence, which is clearly advantageous to our clients. Our exclusive agreement with Elevon, Inc. for all other solutions also ensures our clients’ investments are protected, and allows us to become more responsive to customer and market trends going forward. These activities all reinforce this MBO decision, and the Board’s commitment to growing the business,” said Roger Llewellyn, Chief Executive Officer, Arelon Ltd.
“The plan for the next three years calls for steady growth in all aspects of the business, while at the same time taking advantage of the skills of our development team. This will allow us to create new and innovative ways of providing our customers with the ROI they need from automating their processes,’ Llewellyn concludes.
The Board of Directors will comprise of Jon Moulton, Managing Partner Alchemy LLP, Roger Llewellyn as Chief Executive Officer, Dean Dickinson as Director Operations, John Day as Director Business Operations, and Bill Strachan as Director Sales.
A detailed description of the MBO and its potential is available from the contact below.
For additional information contact:
Clare Frost
Marketing Manager
Arelon Ltd.
Tel. 01296 432951
clare.frost@arelon.co.uk
Bill Strachan
Sales Director
bill.strachan@arelon.co.uk
About Arelon
Arelon Ltd., formerly known as Elevon Ltd, is a leading provider of enterprise-wide business solutions in the areas of finance, procurement and business intelligence. Over the last three years Arelon Ltd. has been extremely successful providing e-business solutions to Global 2000 organisations. After working extensively with these leading organisations, Arelon Ltd. has identified the need to deliver collaborative solutions that extend beyond the four walls of the enterprise. Arelon Ltd. is dedicated to building on these successes to continue to provide the market with enterprise-wide solutions, enabling its customers to continually add value back into the business and achieve a high return on investment.
More information about Arelon Ltd. is available by contacting us at clare.frost@arelon.cc.
© 2002 Arelon Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
Goodbye to Peter and Nic
On Saturday we had a lunch time meal at my home to celebrate the exportation of my brother (Peter), wife (Nic), children (Bethany and Katie) to New Zealand. A good time was had by all.
The Oval
Took Friday off work to see a Cricket match. All started on Wednesday when I went to the Plough and Anchor for a pint. Paul Ring the landlord ended up selling me his ticket to the second day of the England against India test match at the Oval.
A bit of a rush on Friday, went to Cross, the butcher and bought the beef joint for Saturday, then went to two Tesco shops to try and buy a whole Salmon. Found one in the Aylesbury Tesco. Bought that and put it into the refrigerator at work. I was still able to catch the train to London in time for the start of the match.
There were ten of us from the nearby villages watching the match from the Glover stand. The rain held off with the sun shining most of the day. It was an interesting experience, with me drinking several pints of Fosters. The game seems to play on in the background while you drink and chat with the others around you.
The Bank Holiday Weekend
This weekend and Bank holiday we basically stayed at home.
The Sunday was the return of the Welsh, (St Brides Major) clay shoot. They arrived at 11.30 and shot the 80 bird layout. After the shoot, there was lunch and much beer and wine. The result, we beat them on the day, but they won the whole overall shoot by six shots. When you think each of us need only have scored half a shot more to win, then you can see how close it was.
The Monday we ran a shoot for the Grendon Underwood football team. There was a lot of set-up and clearing up at the end. I had to show most of the shooters how to handle and shoot with a shotgun. They, never having shot before.
Canal trip
No rest at all, up early to do the final touches the chicken dish for the Saturday picnic. At Pitstone by 9.00 a.m for the canal trip kindly arranged by Carol and John Curd. There were twelve of us on board.
The boat was on the Grand Union canal. We took it South going through 6 locks stopped for the picnic and then took it back to its berth.
The day was excellent, the sun shone, a breeze kept the temperature down to a comfortable temperature. The company was good, the different foods provided on the picnic were excellent, as was the wine. The entertainment of opening and closing the locks kept us amused and fit.
Only bad point was I seemed to miss a hand rail on the boat and fell into the canal. Oh well, can’t be helped, it did seem to provide amusement to all those around.
Back to old blighty
I was in bed by 2.30 after the blues night and trip back on the El. Now the alarm clock, and phone were ringing to make sure I was awake by 5.30 in the morning. A quick shower and a cup of coffee, and I was at the Blue line El by 6.00. Soaked in sweat from the very high humidity. It was hot and a little rain was falling.
Made the plane in plenty of time, take off was an hour late, we spent much of that time moving from one side of the airport and then back again. Something to do with storms in some direction or other. Chatted with an American on the way back, her first time in England, and a little frightened of flying from some past experiences of turbulence.
Arrived in Heathrow at 11.00 p.m., place was deserted. Took a while to get the car out of the car park, because I could not find the phone to ring the Pink Elephant park. This was not a BT phone, but an internal extension phone. Eventually left Heathrow 12.00, getting home at 1.00 am, before the daughter who arrived in later at 2.00
Thursday in Chicago and more blues
Today was just finishing up in work. Set up the backups, and added the creation of the SQL to the install scripts.
Supper was at the hotel, in the Trader Vics restaurant. Had some Mae Tae cocktails and BBQed fish for supper. Afterwards headed out on the EL to the Blues club on 2500 North Halstead. Arrived just as the band was starting to play at 9.30. They played three sets of one hour each, and so I left at around 1.30 Friday morning. It was a pretty good evening. Consumed a few glasses of beer, and bought a couple of tee shirts from the club.
Liz and Mike recognised me from the previous evening. Had a few words with them.
Wednesday in Chicago and the Blues
My time here is coming to an end, just one more day and I will be out of here.
Work wise, just adding the final touches to the release mechanism, though more work must be done to add all the other products later.
For lunch went out for an Indian buffet with Tom and Vikram. It was quite good, spicy but not hot. Because it was a buffet could try all kinds of dishes.
After work did a bit of shopping, bought my self some jeans. I went to Virgin MegaStore to take a look at the DVDs, they were priced at the full US price so I did not buy anything. The selection was large, they had box sets of all kinds of UK shows, Monty Python, Black Adder, Jeeves and Worster (sic), etc. They also had the Collectors Edition of Die Hard, (6 DVDs) at 79.99 + tax. I was looking to buy the DC version of Blade Runner, I might get it from Tower Records next to the hotel, it is a bit cheaper there.
I had supper in the Down Town bar of the hotel again. Meal wise I had, beer and a burger. Tonight was blues night and the band was excellent. It must be hard for them to perform in that type of environment where they do not get a great attention from the audience. They had just got back from Germany, and had spent a night in England. Apparently getting a lecture from the cabby as to why we will never have the Euro in England.
I am afraid I bought two CDs, one by the singer Liz Mandville Greeson, and the other by the guitarist Mike Gibb. Hope they sound as good as they do live. I might go out and see them play tonight at a Blues club on Halstead road.