A day after the initial report that Broadcom is in talks to buy SAS Institute, WSJ reported that the founders of SAS had a change of mind and decided not to sell to Broadcom. SAS is known to be a software company with a tight-knit culture and generous employee benefits. In a blog from two years ago, the company listed some of the most popular perks include:

• Generous vacation and volunteer time off policy

• Unlimited sick days

• On-campus health care center – free to employees and dependents. (Seriously – they don't have a billing department!)

• Subsidized childcare

• 6 subsidized cafés with everything from sushi to wood fired pizza ovens

• Full recreation and fitness center with a pool, group fitness classes and basketball courts

• Onsite hair salon, nail salon and massage therapy

• Work/Life center helping everyone from our young professionals, to new parents, parents with about to go to college, eldercare – you name it!

• On-campus shipping center

• Paid maternity and paternity leave and adoption assistance

• Tuition assistance

If you are familiar with Broadcom's CEO Hock Tan, and his track record on past acquisitions, it is not hard to understand why he is attracted to SAS. Such a generous employee benefit offers plenty of room for cost-cutting and Opex synergy in a merger. Borrowing a phrase from my former boss, "Hock is coming in with a machete." It could be for that exact reason why the founders of SAS changed their minds, in our opinion.