HEXAGRAM 54: ORIGINAL, INTERPRETATION AND CASES

HEXAGRAM 54 – Kuei Mei - The Marrying Maiden

Above Chen THE AROUSING, THUNDER

Below TUI THE JOYOUS, LAKE

Above we have

· Chen, the eldest son, and below,

· Tui, the youngest daughter.

· The man leads and

· the girl follows him in gladness.

The picture is that of the entrance of the girl into her husband's house.

In all, there are four hexagrams depicting

the relationship between husband and wife.

1. Hsien, INFLUENCE (31), describes

the attraction that a young couple has for each other;

2. Heng, DURATION (32),

portrays the permanent relationships of marriage;

3. Chien, DEVELOPMENT (53),

reflects the protracted, ceremonious procedures attending the arrangement of a proper marriage; finally,

4. Kuei Mei, THE MARRYING MAIDEN,

shows a young girl under the guidance of an older man who marries her. (1)

THE JUDGMENT

THE MARRYING MAIDEN.

Undertakings bring misfortune.

Nothing that would further.

A girl who

· is taken into the family,

· but not as the chief wife,

must behave with special caution and reserve.

She must not take it upon herself to supplant the mistress of the house,

for that would

· mean disorder and

· lead to untenable relationships.

The same is true of all voluntary relationships between human beings.

While

legally regulated relationships

· evince a fixed connection between

o duties and

o rights,

relationships based on personal inclination

· depend in the long run entirely on tactful reserve.

Affection as the essential principle of relatedness

is of the greatest importance in all relationships in the world.

For

the union of heaven and earth is the origin of the whole of nature.

Among human beings likewise,

spontaneous affection is the all-inclusive principle of union.

THE IMAGE

Thunder over the lake: The image of THE MARRYING MAIDEN.

Thus

the superior man

Understands the transitory

In the light of the eternity of the end.

Thunder stirs the water of the lake,

which follows it in shimmering waves.

This symbolizes the girl who follows the man of her choice.

But

every relationship between individuals

· bears within it the danger that wrong turns may be taken,

· leading to endless misunderstandings and disagreements.

Therefore

it is necessary constantly to remain mindful of the end.

· we permit ourselves to drift along,

o we come together and

o are parted again as the day may determine.

If on the other hand

· a man fixes his mind on an end that endures,

o he will succeed in avoiding the reefs

that confront the closer relationships of people.

THE LINES

Nine at the beginning means:

The marrying maiden as a concubine.

A lame man who is able to tread.

Undertakings bring good fortune.

The princes of ancient China maintained

a fixed order of rank among the court ladies,

who were subordinated to the queen

as are younger sisters to the eldest.

Frequently

they came from the family of the queen,

who herself led them to her husband.

The meaning is that

a girl entering a family with the consent of the wife

· will not rank outwardly as the equal of the latter

but

· will withdraw modestly into the background.

However, if

she understands how to fit herself into the pattern of things,

· her position will be entirely satisfactory, and

· she will feel sheltered in the love of the husband to whom

she bears children.

The same meaning is brought out in the relationships between officials.

A man

· may enjoy the personal friendship of a prince and

· be taken into his confidence.

Outwardly

this man must keep tactfully in the background

behind the official ministers of state,

but, although

· he is hampered by this status, as if he were lame,

· he can nevertheless accomplish something

through the kindliness of his nature.

Nine in the second place means:

A one-eyed man who is able to see.

The perseverance of a solitary man furthers.

Here the situation is that of

a girl married to a man who has disappointed her.

Man and wife ought to work together like a pair of eyes.

Here

the girl is left behind in loneliness;

the man of her choice

· either has become unfaithful

· or has died.

But

she does not lose the inner light of loyalty.

Though the other eye is gone,

she maintains her loyalty even in loneliness.

Six in the third place means:

The marrying maiden as a slave.

She marries as a concubine.

A girl who

· is in a lowly position and

· finds no husband may, in some circumstances,

still win shelter as a concubine.

This pictures the situation of a person who

longs too much for joys that cannot be obtained in the usual way.

He enters upon a situation not altogether compatible with self-esteem.

Neither judgment nor warning is added to this line;

it merely lays bare the actual situation,

so that everyone may draw a lesson from it.

Nine in the fourth place means:

The marrying maiden draws out the allotted time.

A late marriage comes in due course.

The girl is virtuous.

She

· does not wish to throw herself away, and

· allows the customary time for marriage to slip by.

However, there is no harm in this;

she

· is rewarded for her purity and, even though belatedly,

· finds the husband intended for her.

Six in the fifth place means:

The sovereign I gave his daughter in marriage.

The embroidered garments of the princess

Were not as gorgeous

As those of the serving maid.

The moon that is nearly full

Brings good fortune.

The sovereign I is T'ang the Completer.

This ruler decreed that the imperial princesses

should be subordinated to their husbands

in the same manner as other women (cf. hexagram 11, six in the fifth place).

The emperor

does not wait for a suitor to woo his daughter but

gives her in marriage when he sees fit.

Therefore

it is in accord with custom for the girl's family to take the initiative here.

We see here a girl of aristocratic birth who

· marries a man of modest circumstances and

· understands how to adapt herself with grace to the new situation.

She

· is free of all vanity of outer adornment, and

forgetting her rank in her marriage,

· takes a place below that of her husband,

just as the moon, before it is quite full, does not directly face the sun.

Six at the top means:

· The woman holds the basket,

o but there are no fruits in it.

· The man stabs the sheep,

o but no blood flows.

Nothing that acts to further.

At the sacrifice to the ancestors,

· the woman had to present harvest offerings in a basket,

while

· the man slaughtered the sacrificial animal with his own hand.

Here

the ritual is only superficially fulfilled;

· the woman takes an empty basket and

· the man stabs a sheep slaughtered beforehand –

solely to preserve the forms.

This impious, irreverent attitude bodes no good for a marriage.

(1) In China, monogamy is formally the rule, and every man has but one official wife. This marriage, which is less the concern of the two participants than of their families, is contracted with strict observance of forms. But the husband retains the right also to indulge his more personal inclinations. Indeed, it is the most gracious duty of a good wife to be helpful to him in this respect. In this way the relationship that develops becomes a beautiful and open one, and the girl who enters the family at the husband's wish subordinates herself modestly to the wife as a younger sister. Of course it is a most difficult and delicate matter, requiring tact on the art of all concerned. But under favorable circumstances this represents the solution of a problem for which European culture has failed to find an answer. Needless to say, the ideal set for woman in China is achieved no oftener than is the European ideal.

54 THE MARRYING MAIDEN

MANAGERIAL ISSUE:

The CEO – managing to survive a merger / takeover - his new role in the parent corporation after it took his own corporation (the marrying maiden) over.

Hexagram 54:

· Describes the corporation as a marrying maiden, sometimes ready and sometimes willing to be taken over. And

· Provides guidance to the CEO on the proper behavior for joining the much larger and powerful corporation.

At a micro level, this Hexagram also applies to the proper behavior of an executive (as a Marrying Maiden) who is coming over to a corporation to run one of its many divisions.

MANAGERIAL LESSONS:

The Superior CEO knows that when playing the role of the CEO of the acquired company, he must:

1. Behave as a young CEO under the guidance of an older and wiser CEO, regardless of actual age. In the case of Citicorp, even though John Reed and Sandy Weil were co-Chairmen, the street-wise Reed of Citicorp should have acted as one who is under the guidance of the older and wiser Weil. In the case of Westinghouse when it bought out the radio company Infinity, the Infinity CEO should have behaved as one under the guidance of the older Westinghouse CEO. This was also the case of Ross Perot when he sold out to General Motors.

2. Realize the difficult position he is in. A proper frame of mind is the secret to his success. This was the case of Ross Perot when entering into the GM family. Throughout its history, there have been so many CEOs of other companies in the GM family of subsidiaries, such as Armstrong of Hughes Electronics, that they could have been compared with a series of concubines in a harem. The CEO of the newly acquired corporation, just as a new concubine cannot pretend to come in all of a sudden and take control of the parent corporation. Ross Perot tried to do it in GM and of course he failed miserably. Even if he was right, and Ross Perot was right in most of his criticism of the GM imperial managerial style, no one can break the corporate protocol and get away with it.

3. Differentiate between legal obligations and voluntary relations. Even if the CEO of the newly acquired company comes with a great contract which includes some legal protection such as a golden parachute, he must understand that this basically a voluntary relationship. Ross Perot came to GM by his own decision, no one forced him. The Superior CEO makes this distinction because for voluntary relations to work out properly, four elements must be in harmony.

a) Tactful reserve - Ross Perot openly criticized the GM management. Tactful reserve requires humility on the part of the new CEO. And humility is the most important characteristic of a successful CEO.

b) Affection - even in the worst-case scenarios, such as a Civil War, affection could have averted disaster. That is why Lincoln so wisely spoke of the bonds of affection, which could prevent the war. He also spoke of friendship as the only way to win a man to one’s cause. The I Ching says:” spontaneous affection is the all-inclusive principle of union.” Was there ever any spontaneous affection between Ross Perot and the GM management?

c) Focus, focus, focus. The Superior CEO makes a clear differentiation between the eternal and the temporary by keeping in mind the ultimate goal. In voluntary human relations there is always the possibility of misunderstandings and disagreements. Such is the case of CEOs whose corporations have been taken over. Relations between CEOs of conglomerates and CEOs of recently acquired companies are similar to those of spiders in a bottle. Such relations are always full of dangers. Only a vision of a common ultimate goal will keep them from bickering and fighting. If the spiders would realize that their common goal was to get out of the bottle they would not fight but rather help each other out.

4. Keep an eye on his adversaries. Lincoln gave us a wonderful example of how to deal with one’s adversaries. He placed all the spiders in the bottle by inviting all his political enemies to join his cabinet. But he kept the final outcome in mind at all times. His goal was to win the war regardless of the everyday bickering amongst his Secretaries or his Generals. Did Ross Perot try to see the whole picture or was he like Lincoln’s McClelland, undermining the whole war effort? His criticisms probably did force some changes but in the end GM got rid of him and made a fortune with his own company (bought EDS for $2.5 billion in 1984 and sold it 11 years later for $21 billion). In the case of Citicorp, Sandy Weil got inside the bottle with John Reed keeping in mind at all times his grand vision of a financial supermarket and knowing full well that in the end he would succeed. His, however, was a classic pyrrhic victory.

INVESTMENT ADVICE:

For the investor, the Marrying Maiden represents in general terms an unfavorable Time-Space to invest. It is quite difficult to manage under a position of disadvantage as that of a concubine or a second choice. Particularly when there is a hostile takeover attempt from a larger corporation as in the case of Computer Sciences Corporation (see below)

By itself (no lines) the Time-Space points to Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.

THE MARRYING MAIDEN.

Undertakings bring misfortune.

Nothing that would further.

A girl who is taken into the family, but not as the chief wife, must behave with special caution and reserve. She must not take it upon herself to supplant the mistress of the house, for that would mean disorder and lead to untenable relationships.

The same is true of all voluntary relationships between human beings. While legally regulated relationships evince a fixed connection between duties and rights, relationships based on personal inclination depend in the long run entirely on tactful reserve.

Affection as the essential principle of relatedness is of the greatest importance in all relationships in the world. For the union of heaven and earth is the origin of the whole of nature. Among human beings likewise, spontaneous affection is the all-inclusive principle of union.

The lines include two possibilities of Good Fortune (the first and the fifth). The rest are semi negative or full negative.

At the present moment there are no cases of corporations under the Marrying Maiden Time-Space in the DJI or the NASDAQ 100; however we can review one from the archives:

· Computer Sciences Corporation under Van Honeycutt (Archives 1995)

(Read at the end of the Hexagram)

We can also review one of a politician which proves once again the I Ching is always right.

· USA under Bill Clinton (Archives 1972)

(Read Chapter On Management)

THE LINES

NINE IN THE FIRST PLACE

Managerial Issue: The CEO – managing to survive a merger / takeover - his new role in the parent corporation after it took his own corporation (the marrying maiden) over.

Managerial Lesson: Be useful.

Managerial Warning: At the first stage of the Marrying Maiden Time-Space, the CEO faces his role as the CEO of the newly acquired corporation who is in a similar business as that of the parent company. This means he is not a complete stranger to the family of business but rather a part of it. So actually there is no reason why he should not feel right at home. However, there is a strict code or etiquette or protocol to be kept and the new CEO must behave accordingly.

Managerial Advice: The Superior CEO knows he:

· Must blend in and take his proper position within the family clan – in his role as new CEO of the subsidiary..

· Must keep in mind that he has been chosen by the CEO of the holding and as such he already counts with his trust.

· The key to his survival lies in being of use to the CEO of the holding as well as by producing for the overall group. The more he produces in his own division, the greater his chance of eventually becoming the CEO of the holding - provided he behaves properly.

Investment advice: Invest.

NINE IN THE SECOND PLACE

Managerial Issue: The CEO – managing to survive a merger / takeover - his new role in the parent corporation after it took his own corporation (the marrying maiden) over - dealing with disappointment.

Managerial Lesson: Be loyal.

Managerial Warning: At the second stage of the Marrying Maiden Time-Space, the CEO of the newly acquired company who was brought on board by the CEO of the holding with promises of active leadership, now finds himself alone either because the CEO who brought him in has found another executive in whom to trust or because the CEO who brought him in has already left the corporation.

Managerial Advice: The Superior CEO, when playing the role of the CEO of the newly acquired company will:

· Continue to work for the good of the group.

· Find success only in his complete devotion to the group, regardless of how well he is treated.

Investment advice: Do not invest.

SIX IN THE THIRD PLACE

Managerial Issue: The CEO – managing to survive a merger / takeover - his new role in the parent corporation after it took his own corporation (the marrying maiden) over – when he is not wanted.

Managerial Lesson: Be worthy.

Managerial Warning: At the third stage of the Marrying Maiden Time-Space, the CEO of a newly acquired corporation finds he has not been invited to join the holding corporation nor given a place of honor; yet he insists and begs on coming on board even if it means accepting the lowest of positions with the hope of eventually making it to the top.

Managerial Advice: The superior CEO is a man of honor. He knows that to beg for a position is unworthy, and that nothing good will ever come out of a situation where an executive begs to be accepted. This would not be humility but self-abasement. An executive as such is of no use to any corporation.

Investment advice: Do not invest.

NINE IN THE FOURTH PLACE

Managerial Issue: The CEO – holding back the merger / takeover of his top-notch corporation for a better suitor.

Managerial Lesson: Be mature.

Managerial Warning: At the fourth stage of the Marrying Maiden Time-Space, the CEO has talent and runs a top-notch corporation. He plays hard to get, making all kinds of demands from the pursuing corporation. By so doing, he misses the opportunity of a merger forcing the other CEO to give up any takeover attempts.

Luckily, he needs not worry. Fate protects this talented and conceited CEO. He will find a new corporation to join either as the CEO or as a high-ranking executive. Sooner or later talent is always rewarded. However, he must change his attitude.

Managerial Advice: The Superior CEO is humble. Even more so when he is talented and being sought after.

Investment advice: Do not invest. Look for a better alternative

SIX IN THE FIFTH PLACE

Managerial Issue: The CEO – managing to survive a merger / takeover - his new role in the parent corporation after it took his own corporation (the marrying maiden) over – serving under the parent’s corporation less talented CEO.

Managerial Lesson: Be humble.

Managerial Warning: At the fifth stage of the Marrying Maiden Time-Space, the CEO is talented and faces the possibility of working for the less talented CEO of the holding corporation.

Managerial Advice: The Superior CEO is humble and because he is talented, he is able to blend in with the new corporation. When he is more talented than the CEO himself, he will do his duty and prove his loyalty without complaints.

Investment advice: Invest.

SIX IN THE SIXTH PLACE

Managerial Issue: The CEO – managing to survive a merger / takeover - his new role in the parent corporation after it took his own corporation (the marrying maiden) over – looking for a good role but bringing nothing to the table.

Managerial Lesson: Be honest.

Managerial Warning: At the sixth stage of the Marrying Maiden Time-Space, on the one hand, the CEO of the newly acquired corporation has little to offer to the CEO of the holding corporation, while on the other hand, the CEO of the holding corporation makes false promises to the CEO of the newly acquired corporation.

Managerial Advice: The Superior CEO is honest. He will refrain from joining a holding where he has nothing to offer. He is also wise enough to know that nothing good will ever come out of two CEOs who misguide and lie to each other. To behave in such fashion, can only bring harm to themselves as well as to their corporations.

Investment advice: Do not invest.

MANAGERIAL CASES

Computer Sciences Corporation under Van Honeycutt (Archives - 1995)

Points the investor should have considered:

1) THE HEXAGRAM

HEXAGRAM 54 – Kuei Mei - The Marrying Maiden

Above we have Chen, the eldest son, and below, Tui, the youngest daughter. The man leads and the girl

follows him in gladness. The picture is that of the entrance of the girl into her husband's house. In all, there are four hexagrams depicting the relationship between husband and wife. Hsien, INFLUENCE (31), describes the attraction that a young couple has for each other; Heng, DURATION (32), portrays the permanent relationships of marriage; Chien, DEVELOPMENT (53), reflects the protracted, ceremonious procedures attending the arrangement of a proper marriage; finally, Kuei Mei, THE MARRYING MAIDEN, shows a young girl under the guidance of an older man who marries her. (1)

THE JUDGMENT

THE MARRYING MAIDEN.

Undertakings bring misfortune.

Nothing that would further.

2) THE ADVICE

Thunder over the lake: The image of THE MARRYING MAIDEN.

Thus the superior man

Understands the transitory

In the light of the eternity of the end.

Thunder stirs the water of the lake, which follows it in shimmering waves. This symbolizes the girl who follows the man of her choice. But every relationship between individuals bears within it the danger that wrong turns may be taken, leading to endless misunderstandings and disagreements. Therefore it is necessary constantly to remain mindful of the end. If we permit ourselves to drift along, we come together and are parted again as the day may determine. If on the other hand a man fixes his mind on an end that endures, he will succeed in avoiding the reefs that confront the closer relationships of people.

3) THE LINES:

Six at the top means:

The woman holds the basket, but there are no fruits in it.

The man stabs the sheep, but no blood flows.

Nothing that acts to further.

At the sacrifice to the ancestors, the woman had to present harvest offerings in a basket, while the man slaughtered the sacrificial animal with his own hand. Here the ritual is only superficially fulfilled; the woman takes an empty basket and the man stabs a sheep slaughtered beforehand - solely to preserve the forms. This impious, irreverent attitude bodes no good for a marriage.

4) THE MOVING HEXAGRAM

HEXAGRAM 38 - K'uei - Opposition

This hexagram is composed of the trigram Li above, i.e., flame, which burns upward, and Tui below, i.e., the lake, which seeps downward. These two movements are in direct contrast. Furthermore, Li is the second daughter and Tui the youngest daughter, and although they live in the same house they belong, to different men; hence their wills are not the same but are divergently directed.

THE JUDGMENT

OPPOSITION.

In small matters, good fortune.

When people live in opposition and estrangement they cannot carry out a great undertaking in common; their points of view diverge too widely. In such circumstances one should above all not proceed brusquely, for that would only increase the existing opposition; instead, one should limit oneself to producing gradual effects in small matters. Here success can still be expected, because the situation is such that the opposition does not preclude all agreement.

In general, opposition appears as an obstruction, but when it represents polarity within a comprehensive whole, it has also its useful and important functions. The oppositions of heaven and earth, spirit and nature, man and woman, when reconciled, bring about the creation and reproduction of life. In the world of visible things, the principle of opposites makes possible the differentiation by categories through which order is brought into the world.

THE IMAGE

Above, fire, below, the lake: The image of OPPOSITION.

Thus amid all fellowship

The superior man retains his individuality.

The two elements, fire and water, never mingle but even when in contact retain their own natures. So the cultured man is never led into baseness or vulgarity through intercourse or community of interests with persons of another sort; regardless of all commingling, he will always preserve his individuality.

Comments:

With the Marrying Maiden, the Oracle was advising Van Honeycutt of the coming hostile takeover attempt by Computer Associates International. He acted correctly in rejecting the offer as per: the advice in the Judgment, the line and the Moving Hexagram:

· The Judgment:

THE MARRYING MAIDEN. Undertakings bring misfortune. Nothing that would further.

· The Line:

The woman holds the basket, but there are no fruits in it. The man stabs the sheep, but no blood flows. Nothing that acts to further.

· The Moving Hexagram:

Opposition

The following article covers the hostile takeover attempt.

In late 1997 Computer Associates International, a software services company, made an offer to buy Computer Sciences. When the offer was turned down, Computer Associates International launched a hostile takeover bid, creating one of the most public and nastiest battles between major corporations in the late 1990s.

Computer Associates International offered $108 per share, a total of $98 billion, for Computer Sciences. It turned out that Honeycutt was not weak; he was an unpretentious person, but he was, as he described himself at the time (Lubove 1998); a "pain in the ass." To Honeycutt, Computer Associates International and Computer Sciences were antithetical companies. Honeycutt viewed Computer Associates International as a rigid company that insisted on having all services for clients developed in-house, whereas Computer Sciences had a flexible business model that encouraged finding solutions for clients even if those solutions were to be found in an outside company. Honeycutt was proud that Computer Sciences was objective in its analyses of its clients' needs, whereas he viewed Computer Associates International as a vendor that always tried to force clients to fit the services Computer Associates International itself had to offer.

The CEO of Computer Associates International was the computer-industry pioneer Charles Wang, who along with the company's president, Sanjay Kumar, had built the company into a corporate giant through acquisitions. Wang saw Computer Sciences as a good fit with his company because Computer Sciences had a worldwide sales force and success in financial services. Honeycutt sued Wang and Computer Associates International, asserting that Wang and Kumar had tried to bribe him into going along with the takeover by offering him $50 million in cash and stock. Wang insisted that talks with Honeycutt had focused on how much Computer Associates International would pay per share, declaring that Honeycutt had asked for $130 per share and that negotiations had eventually focused on $115 to $125 per share.

Honeycutt insisted that he had never negotiated with Wang and that Computer Sciences was not for sale at any price. Wang and Computer Associates International sued Computer Sciences in Las Vegas, Nevada, because Nevada laws favored the takeover bid. Wang declared that Computer Sciences was violating the law by not presenting the takeover bid to Computer Sciences shareholders for a vote. Computer Sciences changed its bylaws to require that 90 percent of its board members had to vote in favor of a takeover before it could be brought to a vote of shareholders. Wang accused Honeycutt of racism, because someone at Computer Services had said that Computer Sciences was at risk of losing its defense contracts, which were 29 percent of Computer Sciences business at the time, because Wang was a native of China and Kumar was a native of Sri Lanka. Computer Sciences quickly apologized.

Honeycutt took his case to Computer Sciences shareholders, arguing that a takeover by Computer Associates International would harm Computer Sciences customers because Computer Associates International lacked the flexibility and objectivity of Computer Sciences and that the takeover would harm employees because Computer Associates International had a history of firing large numbers of employees after successfully taking over a company. Wang promised that such firings would not occur. Honeycutt promised that Computer Sciences shares would soon be worth more than $108 apiece and that Computer Sciences would have an 18 percent increase in earnings for 1998. Journalists considered Honeycutt's promises difficult to keep because the U.S. Department of Defense was cutting spending, lowering potential income for Computer Sciences.

On February 10, 1998, the value of Computer Sciences shares increased to $106.94 each. On February 17 Computer Associates International officially initiated its hostile takeover bid. On February 19 Honeycutt pressed his case that the hostile takeover would damage customers and employees, two points recognized as a legal defense in Nevada, and that shareholders would lose money. Shareholders supported Honeycutt, and on March 16, 1998, Computer Associates International let its offer expire, but not without Wang's writing a scathing public letter chastising Honeycutt for harming shareholders.

By May 1998 the value of Computer Sciences stock was near $108, and the stock was split. In a display of lack of flexibility that summer Computer Sciences turned down an outsourcing deal with the telecommunications giant BellSouth because at a consultant's urging BellSouth wanted to share the outsourcing deal with Andersen Consulting and EDS. On September 10, 1998, President Clinton appointed Honeycutt chair of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee, which was then working on the year-2000 computer problem, which would have had millions of computers resetting their dates to 1900 on January 1, 2000. With help from Computer Sciences and other technology companies, the government managed to adapt its software and computers in time to avert the resetting to 1900. Later in 1998 Computer Sciences signed a $3 billion contract with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to help manage the service's flow of information. By the end of the year Computer Sciences had 45,000 employees in seven hundred offices around the world and had won a reputation for toughness. By then three-fourths of its revenue was coming from commercial businesses.

In February 1999 Computer Sciences split stock was trading at $64 per share, the equivalent of $128 before the split and $20 dollars more than Computer Associates International's offer the previous February. Earnings had increased 24 percent. These numbers were above Honeycutt's promises of the previous February. For 1999 revenues were $7.60 billion. In January 1999 Honeycutt negotiated a $300 million deal with AT&T to manage AT&T's billing processes. More remarkable was Honeycutt's making peace with Computer Associates International through a deal whereby Wang's company would participate with Computer Sciences in outsourcing work.