ALA 2010 Midwinter Meeting: Management Team Buys Polaris
ALA 2010 Midwinter Meeting - American Library Association - Library Journal
By Francine Fialkoff -- Library Journal, 01/15/2010
- Management team buys company
- Continuity of products a priority
- Deal helped by new, local investor
In the first ILS news of the Midwinter ALA meeting, Polaris Library Systems announced that the current management team, headed by CEO and President Bill Schickling, has bought the company. According to Schickling, the owners (Croydon Company's Martin Blackman and Adele Bergreen) helped finance the deal, along with Jim Carrick, a Syracuse businessman who invested in the company and will join the management team. In addition to Schickling, the investors include Polaris stalwarts Anita Wagner, Dave Bendekovic, and Jim Mieczkowski.
Schickling told LJ the deal "is our way of guaranteeing that things stay on the current path for a long time."
"I'm very appreciative of the owners help in putting the package together," Schickling said. In addition to the financing from Carrick and the Croydon Company, Schickling said the group had gotten a very low interest loan from New York's Empire State Development.
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