Anyone have an idea of what the severance is looking like post merger. Senior leader hinted to our group 2 months ago it would be comparable to VSP and details would come out shortly. We have heard nothing since. Alex Taylor stated we would be proud of how they handled this merger and all they have done is kept us in the dark and guessing.
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@jb Well, you can maybe find work as a comedian.
@15c You don’t have to stay. Get s new job and leave on your own terms. That you’ve never said if you’re not close to retirement it’s easier to get a new job while you’re working and not too old and competing with other layoffs.
@38y Most locations will be reduced to customer facing roles, mainly techs, splicers and sales related, but not call center or phone sales, the sales in retail stores and who work directly with large business clients.
@ee It’s all about the shareholders now, not the employees and not the customers. COX had to do this while they could still stay afloat. They spend too much money and the customers hate them already. Customers hate all service providers, but I think COX has a special little. Hate in many people’s heart. Their prices are ridiculous and nobody wants their cable or mobile service and their fiber is mostly not fiber to the home just to the node. The competition is beating them with way better speed for half the price.
@fs It’s out of their hands, and they are living with the same uncertainty. They will be included in the reduction, half of them will probably be gone in five years, although the few at the very top probably leave with more than most of us make in a lifetime. There aren’t that many of them though really maybe 20-50. Supervisors and above will be reduced. It starts with select VP’s leaving, then their is a restructuring with everybody wondering if they will be chosen for reassignment to a new boss that shows up once a year in town maybe, maybe reduced by 5%. When they announce the new structure and leadership assignments a few of the next level are told they didn’t make the cut. The remaining levels then wait to see if they make the cut when the new leaders decide and more are cut as it moves down. Probably the first year or two you might be safe as there will be people happy to get paid to retire, unless your department is eliminated, which has already been done on a smaller level. They will continue to trim every year or two from now on. Some bigger them others, sometimes voluntary sometimes not. It’s not just gonna stop after they settle in the first year or two. They will be as big as they ever will be at merger, and shrink regularly from here. You can see by how it happened with the former phone companies now the cable companies are having to consolidate and lay off to keep afloat on some level..
@ee That feeling will never go away, until you are ready for retirement and hoping to get layed off so you can leave a year or two earlier or if you are already at that point and sticking around to leave with a nice nest egg.
The talks about Cox & Spectrum layoffs keep creeping up. I wonder what depts are not going to get laid off by Spectrum?
@1as another pushback to 9/9. I suspect the deal may fall through.
I've heard 2 weeks a year with a max of 30 weeks for individual contributors. Not sure if that included COBRA. VSP included COBRA and the people that were laid off in 2025 got COBRA, but the severance will be from Charter not CCI.
I've heard through my management that it will be 3 weeks/year... but i had previously heard it would be comparable to the VSP... so.. no one knows and we keep getting je-ked around and left in the dark.
@xt No, they have a fixed % they will own in the new company. The value they are receiving in the transaction has dropped with Charter's stock. A big portion is also being paid to them in cash which hasn't changed.
I guess my question is that if Charter stock has dropped a lot, then will Cox own more significantly stock shares due to the same amount of money Alex spent to buy those stocks?
@jb 16 consecutive quarters of broadband sub losses means current levels of EBITDA are likely to decline. EBITDA is also before interest expense, they have significant maturities over the next 5 years, if they have to refinance at higher rates with a declining underlying business that’s not a good story.
The stock trades a 3.5X earnings or something like that in a very expensive overall market. That tells you no one thinks the earnings will hold up. Hopefully consensus is wrong.
I’m confused by your concern about debt.. the combined company’s debt-to-EBITDA ratio would be more than manageable. If anything, they’ll need to grow their headcount to capture higher market penetration. I think sales and frontline are in for a massive headcount explosion. Post merger they can sell more broadly and the supporting cast will need to grow to ensure follow through.
I am probably not as optimistic about the business. Combined company is pushing $100b in debt post merger and will be in trouble if interest rates continue to stay elevated as the debt maturities come due and broadband sub losses continue.
Having said all that I would like to be part of the new company and hopefully be part of a potential turnaround. The problem with that is it’s not up to me and I am not in a position to move. I just want to know what I am looking at if I lose my position so I can plan for the future.
I don’t agree grace should be given at the top of the chain. They love to pat themselves on the back about how great they are to employees and told us how amazing this merger process would be. I guess I was naive to take them at their word. A job loss is a huge disruption to someone’s life and if you want to claim we will be proud and you care about employees so much act like it.
Totally, uncertainty and being not in-the-know feels bad. For what it’s worth, given a picture of a sun on the horizon, what do you see?
I can’t speak for you, but I want to be part of a $28-$30billion EBITDA company that will be a #68 or better Fortune 500 company post merger. I’m not discounting the legitimate discomfort of simply not knowing. But given Cox has always been more than generous in my time here, everyone up and down the chain deserves grace and patience.
Im in the same boat but I see a rising sun that will shine brighter than ever.