Just a few days ago we were speculating on Centaurs results and the inevitable cost cutting that will follow. Poor Howard Sharman, the Centaur Business Development Director, took a sabbatical to get a M.Sc, came back to work and found his desk had been sold and nobody could remember what he did. Actually that's not quite true. His position has been made redundant.
Interestingly the Centaur announcement blames the redundancy firmly and squarely on the credit crunch by saying
"the recent slowdown in acquisition activity, following the impact of the ongoing credit restrictions means that a significant portion of his prospective duties has been curtailed."
This is interesting on two counts. The credit crunch excuse has not been used quite so overtly before and not entirely convincingly in this case. As far as I know Centaur has made few acquisitions anyway, and has never done so with borrowed money. This is cost cutting to mitigate revenue decline make no mistake.
Oh and if you are in the publishing business please don't use phrases such as "ongoing credit restrictions" - Yuk.
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