Exactly. There is something I "owe" my clients and visa versa. It is called trust. I can't trust you, I can't work for you. If you can't trust me, you should not be using me and/or like most AMC's assuming I am a crook and over-reviewing by bringing up things already in the report.
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But trust does not equal 'owing'. You and a lender may trust each other to have honesty and integrity all day long, but the lender does not OWE you any assignments, and you do not OWE them any promise to do any particular one they may assign, unless you have some agreement in place. It is still a free market based society.
I do agree with you that I won't work for someone I cannot trust. But that is a different issue.
Look, I am not claiming I am happy about this acquisition, I am not. But as long as they continue to support my software through the remaining time I have on my annual membership, with NO increase in fees, I have no official gripe with them. If they choose to close up the ALM shop next year in favor of something up they have cooking, I can't complain about that either. Rather I should say I would have no reason to---I still may because I am human.
ALM has simply exercised its rights to sell itself to someone else. A business's primary stakeholder is always its stockholders (even if only 1) We can be sad, sure, and angry, OK. But they have broken no laws and are not, IMHO, acting unethically. Its a business decision, nothing more or less. Its like college sports fans getting incredulous when some star underclassman turns pro. You've all heard the comments. But switch places with them--if someone offered YOU 7 or 8 figures to do something you LOVE doing, vs remaining in school, to maybe earn $50K at the back end of some degree, which would you choose?
Polonius (Shakespeare): "This above all:
to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man." You cannot be loyal to someone else without first being loyal to yourself.
