#news

Hundreds of layoffs are hitting Chicago’s suburbs. S&S Activewear is letting go of 195 employees, APL Logistics is cutting 230, and 10 Roads Express is dropping 55 workers - adding up to almost 700 layoffs across Illinois.

https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/hundreds-of-layoffs-announced-at-suburban-companies-in-recent-days/3861448/

I could not listen to the call with MA yesterday. Did he talk about layoffs in his board area?

…but oh my, no one is close to being read internally…. M&A to bring in the next CEO?

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/chevron-ceo-wirth-says-in-succession-talks-with-board/ar-AA1S2fhC

Certainly helped AIG stock today! Interesting read: https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/chubb-reportedly-makes-takeover-offer-for-aig-stock-soars-93CH-4401708

https://www.wsj.com/video/att-ceo-not-surprised-by-netflix-warner-deal/BE9CCAD6-870E-4A25-829C-FE43921B35E0

The Street sees through the smoke and mirrors.

https://www.investors.com/news/technology/ibm-stock-confluent-cflt-news-ai-software/

Occidental Petroleum (OXY) -2.5% in Monday's trading as J.P. Morgan downgraded shares to Underweight from Neutral with a $44 price target, cut from $51, citing relative valuation and the company's above-average balance sheet leverage given a cautious stance on crude oil fundamentals.

PepsiCo investors are unimpressed by the company’s latest plans to boost sales growth, cut costs, and increase profits.
The initiative, disclosed Monday, came after “constructive engagement” with Elliott Investment Management, the activist investor that revealed a $4 billion stake in PepsiCo three months ago.
To stimulate sales, PepsiCo plans to offer smaller packages and containers at lower prices. It intends to improve its products by removing artificial colors and flavors and offering simpler ingredients.

To boost margins, the company plans to reduce operating costs, cutting the number of products it offers in the U.S. by nearly 20%. It closed three manufacturing plants and shut down several manufacturing lines this year.
These changes are expected to bring organic sales growth of 2% to 4% in 2026. Including acquisitions and the effect of favorable currency exchange rates, PepsiCo expects net revenue to increase 4% to 6% and core earnings per share to rise 5% to 7%.
“We aim to deliver a record year of productivity savings in 2026, benefiting in part from the actions taken in the second half of 2025,” the company said.
Still, PepsiCo stock was largely flat on Monday and Tuesday. The shares have fallen nearly 10% over the past 12 months as a result of softer sales trends and concern about the turnaround, while Coca-Cola stock has gained nearly 12%.
“There is a lot of work to do and the dual initiatives of a top-line rebound and cost cuts will be hard,” wrote Jefferies analyst Kaumil Gajrawala in a Tuesday note, “Accelerating cost cuts and rejuvenating growth at the same time is a difficult needle to thread.”
Despite the new pricing strategy, the customers PepsiCo has lost because of high prices will be difficult to win back, wrote the analyst. Efforts to innovate in terms of products don’t always go well. And while a leaner portfolio can be good over the long term, it is almost always a drag on sales in the near term, he said.
“We view many of the steps outlined in the release as necessary, but iterative in comparison to some of the more strategic changes some investors were discussing in recent weeks,” wrote UBS analyst Peter Grom. 
Elliott has suggested cutting overhead and freeing up more cash by outsourcing PepsiCo’s low-margin, asset-heavy bottling operations to franchisers. On Monday, PepsiCo said a full refranchising of its North American beverage operation is “not under consideration.”
Rather, the company is integrating its food and beverage businesses in Texas to save money in areas such as transportation, and is considering a national rollout for that approach. CEO Ramon Laguarta said PepsiCo will take a nuanced approach that considers points such as businesses’ scale and sales channels to limit the disruption.
Gajrawala anticipates that at least three or four of PepsiCo’s board members won’t stand for re-election next year, opening the door for “fresh ideas.” While Laguarta serves as both chairman and CEO at PepsiCo, Gajrawala believes those roles should be separate.
“While PepsiCo Foods remains a good asset, it is struggling,” said Gajrawala, “Innovation, openness to ideas, a new CFO and a ‘refreshed’ board should help, but it is too early to call for a turnaround in fundamentals.” 

Investors are still waiting for evidence that PepsiCo’s actions are driving an improvement in sales trends. Still, Grom thinks the latest changes are “a step in the right direction.” He says the stock could rise because PepsiCo’s valuation is low compared with those of its peers.

From Reuters

Wells Fargo: severance likely to rise in fourth quarter
Bank will roll out AI gradually over the next year and beyond
More efficiencies to come from AI, CEO says
Dec 9 (Reuters) - Wells Fargo (WFC.N), opens new tab expects more cuts to its workforce and sees higher severance expenses in the current fourth quarter, CEO Charlie Scharf said on Tuesday, adding that artificial intelligence was set to change the way its business works.
"We have gone through the budgeting process, and even pre-artificial intelligence, we do expect to have less people as we go into next year," Scharf said on the sidelines of a Goldman Sachs financial services conference.

https://wchstv.com/news/local/west-virginia-sues-united-healthcare-for-exacerbating-the-states-opi--d-epidemic

https://calmatters.org/newsletter/lahsa-layoffs/

Checking to see how much change is happening

Seems like the rumor is coming true

https://www.masondc.com/blog/contract-awarded-wells-fargo-one-flagler

https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/12/08/trump-now-slams-paramount-skydance-deal-after-marjorie-taylor-greene-bashes-him-on-60-minutes/

do a a quick google search, multiple articles released today. Feels like they are easing into what’s to come.

Plans are in the works to save hundreds of the roughly 1,000 jobs slated to be lost at Algoma Steel Inc.

Bill Slater, president of United Steelworkers local 2724 that represents some of the affected employees, says as many as 500 people could be back at work by the end of next year.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-algoma-union-job-cuts-federal-loan/

Apparently the Confluent Cloud is not a Cluster*fook

Confluent's cloud revenue was a primary driver of growth in 2025, with Q3 2025 cloud revenue reaching $161 million, a 24% increase year-over-year.

Confluent reported its Q3 2025 earnings in October 2025, where total revenue surpassed Wall Street expectations.

The company was recently announced to be acquired by IBM in an $11 billion deal, a transaction expected to close by mid-2026.

Confluent's annual revenue for the trailing twelve months ending September 30, 2025, was $1.113 billion, a 21.58% increase year-over-year.
More detailed financial data is available through Confluent's investor relations website.

Confluent 2025 Revenue Breakdown
Fiscal Period Total Revenue Subscription Revenue
Q1 2025 $271.1 million $261.0 million
Q2 2025 $282.3 million $271.0 million
Q3 2025 $298.5 million $286.3 million
Q4 2025 Outlook N/A $295.5 - $296.5 million
FY 2025 (Total) ~$1.16 billion $1.1135 - $1.1145 billion

The company will cut 200 employees, about 4% of its global workforce. Because over 3,000 of Mobileye’s roughly 4,300 employees are based in Israel, most of the layoffs will fall on its local teams.

https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/hjznnzvzzl

U.S. Xpress laid off employees across the company in response to lower demand for trucking, according to an internal email obtained by the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

https://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2025/dec/05/us-xpress-enacts-broad-layoffs-amid-reduced-truck/

What's the latest news after AEP ended yesterday? Concerns, comments, predictions?

Has anyone heard of who has been impacted as of this morning? All quiet on my end and I’m in a Corporate role.

Looks like Pepsi has decided to go back to the region structure lol…

https://m.economictimes.com/news/new-updates/the-500-years-old-temple-where-techies-go-to-fulfil-their-american-dream-no-puja-just-personal-connection-with-deity/amp_articleshow/124119110.cms

$11B? Who wants to hazard a guess as to how AK is going to pay for this?

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/ibm-nears-roughly-11-billion-deal-for-confluent-276f52d8

Deal for data-infrastructure company could come as soon as Monday

By: Lauren Thomas
Dec. 7, 2025 10:01 pm ET

International Business Machines IBM is in advanced talks to acquire data-infrastructure company Confluent CFLT for around $11 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

The details

A deal could be announced as soon as Monday, the people said, cautioning that the talks could still fall apart.

Confluent had a market value of around $8 billion as of Friday, while IBM’s was around $290 billion.

Confluent provides technology that helps manage streams of real-time data used in big artificial-intelligence models. An AI bo-m has boosted the need for its capabilities from companies in sectors including retail, technology and financial services.

The context

An acquisition of Confluent would be the biggest deal for IBM in recent memory as it repositions its business around AI.

Last year, it agreed to buy cloud-software provider HashiCorp for $6.4 billion, in a deal that pushed it further into fast-growing cloud and AI offerings.

In October, IBM posted higher revenue in the third quarter, boosted by higher-than-expected growth in its consulting business. IBM in November said it would lay off thousands of employees before the end of the year, joining other technology companies that are repositioning themselves in the age of artificial intelligence.

IBM has been competing with Google, Microsoft and a number of startups to build computers that exceed the abilities of the best conventional ones. It is working on larger clusters of quantum chips that it expects will enable large-scale computing in the next five years.

Chief Executive Arvind Krishna recently said IBM has used AI—specifically AI agents—to replace the work of a couple of hundred human-resources workers. That has enabled it to hire more programmers and salespeople.

Technology has been one of the busiest sectors for dealmaking this year. Google parent Alphabet struck a $32 billion deal for cybersecurity startup Wiz. Palo Alto Networks agreed to a $25 billion deal for CyberArk. And Salesforce struck an $8 billion deal for data-management software firm Informatica.

State Farm has been found out again! They knew exactly what they were doing and just got caught! Sounds like they just tried to buy people off but it was basically too big for them to hide anymore. If the states AG and Departments of Insurances knew half of what State Farm has been doing over the last decade, most of the Exec would be in jail and they would shut this place down. Sh-t hole and scam! They treat their employees like they treat customers!

Executives are considering potential budget cuts as high as 30% for the metaverse group next year, which includes the virtual worlds product Meta Horizon Worlds and its Quest virtual reality unit, according to people familiar with the talks, who asked not to be named while discussing private company plans. Cuts that high would most likely include layoffs as early as January, according to the people, though a final decision has not yet been made.

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2025/dec/07/metas-zuckerberg-plans-deep-cuts-for-metaverse-eff/

https://www.communicationstoday.co.in/us-bancorp-taps-tcs-wipro-cognizant-ansr-for-india-gcc-mandate/

Bank has kept this hushed but India’s media has let this cat out of the bag on Friday. I’m sure this post will get deleted soon but I’ll be back to make another one.

Per the news media, USB plans to open 2 Global Capability Centers (GCC) in India. The Hyderabad location will be built and owned by the bank itself while the Chennai location goes through vendors (Cognizant, TCS etc.) Overall hiring is expected at 3-5000 employees.

Say hello to Bank of India!

https://www.aol.com/topeka-sees-bnsf-railway-layoffs-010501095.html

That only came out last week, when Algoma, after announcing it was laying off 1,000 workers at its steel plant in Sault Ste. Marie, revealed both levels of government knew in advance about the impending layoffs when they granted the loans.

https://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-public-kept-in-dark-about-algoma-layoffs

https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/technology/tech-news/ibm-ceo-to-google-amazon-microsoft-and-other-tech-companies-does-not-make-sense-to-/articleshow/125804195.cms

Optimum Communications awards special bonuses to executive officers

https://share.google/DVhVh6LdlmjKHiAlo

https://www.phoronix.com/news/Brendan-Gregg-Leaves-Intel

Another round effective today.

Good read with lots of BTS scoops, but an AI summary might just read: Entitlement breeds arrogance, which breeds entitlement, which breeds arrogance...

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/paramount-plans-ninja-turtles-south-park-1236439954/

Word is LTIMindtree might be on way out finally.

Buckle up Pepsico for a bumpy ride.

https://www.wsj.com/business/deals/pepsico-nears-settlement-with-activist-investor-elliott-dbda9a2a

I guess this turns out to be true !!!! Field service is gonna be all Mastec

Anybody heard anything about Another Rebranding?

https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/12/04/the-biggest-heist-in-america-is-being-sold-as-a-gift-to-children/

In the aftermath of the cancellation of a major Navy contract, nearly 100 workers are being laid off from Fincantieri Marinette Marine.

Last week, the U.S. Navy announced it is ending the Constellation frigate program, thus canceling the remaining four ships that were supposed to be built in Marinette.

https://fox11online.com/news/local/fincantieri-marinette-marine-issues-layoffs-after-navy-cancels-frigate-program-constellation-ships-workforce-white-collar-employees-contract-labor-workers