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This case is part of the ADP-GSI case series on mergers and acquisitions. This is an abridged version of the case 'GSI (A)'. GSI (Generale de Service Informatique) is a computer services company, the leader in payroll outsourcing in France. The company founder sees the value in selling computer services to create a recurring revenue stream. His years in French public administration prompt him to create a decentralised and non-bureaucratic company, taking to an extreme the values of empowerment, trust and respect for the individual. Success in the 1970s and 1980s allows the company to grow by acquisition, resulting in a multi-business company with pan-European reach. The founder's ideals play a large part in achieving an employee leveraged buyout (LBO) in 1987, resulting in much sought-after independence from the large French conglomerate that had given GSI its start. By the early 1990s, several factors pressure results. An economic downturn crimps sales. Huge outlays to develop software and implement a quality programme pressure profitability. The plethora of business units, with totally different business models becomes unwieldy. Impatient and angered financial investors from the 1987 leveraged buyout distract top management with petitions to exit. The management team becomes increasingly dysfunctional. At the end of 1994, the founder and chairman responds abruptly by firing half of his top managers.