Why does your post sound like “sour grapes”? Or, is it possible that you are one of the unfortunate former ARC employees who was laid off? If you were, please know that I am sorry that happened to you. A lot of good people have lost their jobs in this very ugly recession.

I would like to take just a moment to comment on things you said that are inexcusable and to correct things you said that are not correct.

1) While the “top level” people who run this company may not have been born in the U.S.A., our country (America, that is), was founded on the principle that our country offers opportunity to everyone, regardless of where they came from, their religion, their color, etc. I get excited when I read about people who come to this country as immigrants and who, through hard work, become successful. Instead of bashing ARC’s top guys, I would applaud them, what they’ve been able to accomplish. Heck, they are the reason that I’m not working in the reprographics industry in the U.S., and not even that would make me “bash” these guys.

2) That statement about running an auto parts franchise is not correct. Mohan, the previous CEO and COB of ARC, did, prior to joining Ford Graphics in 1988, work for a chain that dealt in auto parts. But, in early 1988 (when he became CFO of Ford Graphics), he began to school himself in the reprographics business and industry. He was a quick-study. He actually entered Ford when Ford was entering a recession. Later, Suri, who never worked for an auto parts franchise and Dilo, who never worked for an auto parts franchise, joined Ford Graphics. Jonathan, the current CFO, was, likewise, not involved in the auto parts franchise business. Only Mohan was, and he retired from the company (and from the CEO and COB positions.) By the way, Mohan was an employee of Ford first, before he made an offer to buy Ford from J.C. Smith, then owner of Ford.

3) Excuse me………., if you ask the owners of the top 25 non-ARC reprographics companies in the U.S. about the business prowess of ARC’s top management team, you will hear the same answer from every one of them and that answer would be “these guys totally know how to run a service-oriented business” and their performance – before and in a recession, speaks for itself.

4) ARC’s stock actually hit around $37 at its high point. ARC went public at $13 per share. ARC’s debt is due to the acquisition model that ARC employed – a good dose of leverage. Will that debt level be manageable going forward? Only time will tell.

5) The FTC (and the Calif State agency that does for the State of Calif what the FTC does for the U.S.) won’t “stay” ARC’s acquisition activity. Both the FTC and the Calif ATC passed on interfering with ARC’s acquisition of Consolidated Reprographics in Orange County, CA. The reprographics industry does not have much of an impact on consumers. And, businesses who buy reprographics know that they have lots of choices, no matter how many companies ARC acquires.