Again, more assumptions. Stop reading into the press release as it’s the holy gospel.
I worked for several years for the PricewaterhouseCoopers office in Louisville. We dealt with several Private Equity companies and publicly traded companies. Before any of those companies would submit a press release, they would always have us review it, their attorneys review it and sometimes a PR Firm depending on the nature of the news release. This degree of care was to ensure they were covered to ensure no misstatements that entities who may rely on the information in the release (creditors, partners, regulators, etc.) were contained in the release which could lead to legal liabilities or a public relations embarrassment which could affect the private equity firm`s reputation which is very valuable to them. So, holy gospel, no. Pretty reliable though, I would say yes. It is just not worth being careless on press releases.
This whole Private Equity business happened way after Mike came on board with 3D.
The process of interviewing investment bankers to advise through the process (3D selected Parcrest Advisors), search for an investor or vet the investor if they approached you, go through the Due Diligence process (far more broad in scope and time consuming than a typical financial statement audit), negotiate the deal and then execute the deal is a very long process, millions of dollars are at stake. I serve on the finance committee of my parish with an investment banker and he often comments on how long the process of a purchase can span. I have to believe the process was already in progress in the early stages when Mike was approached.
And last I checked he didn’t have any kind of role/stake/ownership in the direction and/or future of 3D. He was nothing more than an employee afaik.
Mike may have been nothing more than an employee but he was more than just Bob in accounting (no offense Bob), he was being hired for a pretty prominent position where his face and reputation were being used to promote the 3D brand and ownership/investor changes could materially change his role i.e. working for a closely held "family" type company where he worked side by side with the owner to one that is accountable to a corporate holding company more concerned with monthly earnings and cash flow and has a much less close-knit environment. He deserved to be informed of this before taking the job. If 3D wanted to keep the transaction quiet, they could have asked Mike to sign a non-disclosure agreement, I have signed several of these over my career while dealing with companies going through deals they wanted to keep out of the public eye during negotiations.
And like any other employee, they have a right to quit at their own discretion if they aren’t happy with their job. And because Florida is a Right to Work state, 3D can terminate his employment just as easy. Unless I’m missing something, it’s on him if he’s not happy with Tunch doing what’s best for company he built. And from the looks of it, this change has catapulted everyone directly involved.
I am fully aware of how Right to Work states are regulated (I live and work in one) and do not see anywhere in my response where I said or even inferred that employment laws or regulations were violated. I do however believe that if Mike truly did walk into his job with 3D and was not given a heads up of what was coming, that is somewhat troubling. Eerily similar to how secretive this website was purchased by 3D from David Bynon.
All along, DavidB promoted this site as a site dedicated to its members, a family community of detailing enthusiasts, passionate about our craft. 3D came on board as a sponsor, which was great, they and other sponsors kept the site free for all of us. Some time around 2009 (I think), DavidB announced that 3D`s role would be expanded and they would be co-administrators (or whatever the title of the role was) which was such a great benefit to the site because the site had become more than he could handle by himself. We all congratulated 3D on their new role. Time went by and someone created a thread and asked, "Where is DavidB? He used to be one of the leading posters (by post count) on this site and his posting has dwindled to nothing now." Someone did some internet searching and found some type of filing where DavidB disclosed he had sold the website to 3D or a company affiliated with 3D, I forget. As the discussion on the thread continued, pretty much everyone agreed that DavidB and 3D had no legal requirement to inform the members of this site, but for a site both parties proudly claimed as a family community of detailers, to do so under our noses just felt underhanded and wrong. Similar to how if Mike`s accusation is accurate, that too seems wrong.