#acquisition

Commonwealth Financial's chief digital officer has left the company shortly after its acquisition by LPL Financial. This departure follows recent layoffs impacting Commonwealth's back-office staff. While not directly linked, these events are typical after a large-scale merger. The acquisition, valued at $2.7 billion, combined LPL's extensive network with Commonwealth's advisor base. Industry observers note that such shifts in leadership and workforce are common post-acquisition.

https://www.investmentnews.com/independent-broker-dealers/as-layoffs-commence-commonwealths-digital-guru-jumps-ship/267533

Bob is quoted as saying "I'll buy that for a dollar"!

In the last 15+ years, we've had two incompetent CEOs, countless reorgs, several acquisitions where we bought for premium prices and sold for cheap, and a complete erosion of culture. I think the rot is so deep at this point that any new leadership would need a miracle, not a strategy to fix this mess.

The timing on this is very interesting. . .
Plenty of money for more M&A. Buying their way to revenue growth continues. . .

https://www.techtimes.com/articles/321374/20260723/ibm-acquires-hrl-bring-silicon-spin-qubits-its-anderon-quantum-foundry.htm

Q2 is out. Revenue basically flat. Free cash flow flat for the half. And yet the letter reads like a highlight reel: double-digit growth here, “strong performance” there, three bold priorities for the back half. Look closer, and the growth is concentrated in exactly the places you’d expect if the story were built on acquisitions rather than the underlying business.
Automation up 3%. Sounds modest until you remember that’s the segment carrying HashiCorp and Apptio (both bought, both being folded into the base, both getting a full year of “integration growth” before the comparison gets tough). Data up 18%, presented like IBM is winning the AI battle. Except Data is also where Confluent landed. Strip out an acquisition that closed months ago and ask what the legacy products in that category actually did on their own (that’s the number nobody puts in bold).
This is the oldest trick in inorganic growth: buy a company, fold its revenue into your segment, get a full year of easy comps while contracts get renewed and “blue-washed” under the new parent, and call the blended number your own performance. It works, for about a year. Then the acquisition anniversaries into the base, the easy comp disappears, and the segment needs the next acquisition to keep the story going. That’s not a growth engine. That’s a treadmill with a one-year lap time.
Meanwhile the parts of the business that were never propped up by an acquisition tell a rougher story. Infrastructure down 7%. Transaction Processing down 9% (they’re the same story told twice). Transaction Processing is the software that rides on Z. No mainframe refresh, no new Z capacity, no large deals closing (no new MLC licensing booked either). Hardware and software here aren’t two separate lines on a slide, they’re one engine: when Z doesn’t sell, the software tied to it doesn’t sell either, and both numbers fall together because they were never actually independent.
Which raises the uncomfortable question: how much of this business is actually layered on top of itself? Acquired revenue propping up Automation and Data while the base underneath goes quiet. Mainframe hardware and mainframe software rising and falling as one, dressed up as two separate growth stories. Each piece needs the piece below it to keep moving, or the whole structure stalls at once. Call it what you want (a treadmill, a house of cards, a pyramid where each new acquisition is there to cover for the last one’s fading comp): the pattern is the same, nothing underneath is generating growth on its own, it’s all leaning on something else that has to keep being fed.
Revenue flat overall at $17.2 billion. Free cash flow flat at $4.8 billion for the half. If the “real” IBM (the part that isn’t riding a recent purchase or a hardware refresh cycle) is shrinking while acquisitions and mainframe timing carry the average, the honest question isn’t “is IBM a software company.” It’s “whose growth is this, actually, and what happens the quarter the props stop arriving on schedule?”
And right on schedule, the answer on offer is another reshuffle (new titles, new coverage models, a new operating structure for the back half). But renaming jobs doesn’t change what’s underneath them. If the growth was never really organic to begin with, no amount of reorganizing who sells it or what they’re called is going to make it real.
And this isn’t a new discovery. The pattern has been visible on the ground for years (it just took a bad quarter for the market to finally notice what employees already knew). That’s the part worth sitting with: this wasn’t leadership missing a hidden signal. It was leadership seeing it, for years, and being too arrogant to admit the story needed correcting. Too invested in a stock price number (chasing $300 a share) to step back and ask whether the growth underneath it was real.
And even if the July reorg were the right diagnosis, it isn’t the right timeline. Deployment takes months to show up as revenue under the best conditions, longer when the team doing it just got reshuffled and has to relearn who owns what. A reorg launched mid-year, needing to prove itself by year-end, is asking for a “wow” effect on a clock that deployment has never once run on. Nobody deploys enterprise software in one or two quarters just because leadership needs a good Q4 slide. So the real question isn’t whether the numbers improve by December; it’s whether anyone at the top is honest enough to say, out loud, that they won’t, and that expecting otherwise is expecting a miracle from a plan that was never built with that timeline in mind.
Numbers tell the truth when you sit with them long enough. Put makeup on them (bold a growth rate, bury the segment it came from, skip the base it’s being compared against) and they’ll tell you whatever story needs telling that quarter. This quarter’s story needed rescuing. The last-minute reorg landing on top of it isn’t the fix. It’s one more coat of makeup on a number that’s going to need a lot more than that to hold up next quarter, when the acquisitions currently doing the heavy lifting start looking like ordinary IBM again.

Biopharmaceutical companies have seen fewer layoffs in the first half of 2026 compared to the previous year. However, the total number of job cuts for the full year may still match 2025 levels. This outcome hinges on a significant increase in layoffs during the second half of the year. Mergers and acquisitions activity, which has risen substantially, could also contribute to future workforce reductions. The size of individual layoff rounds and the impact of M&A will be key factors in determining the year's final tally.

July 23, 2026

https://www.biospace.com/job-trends/biopharma-layoffs-must-double-in-h2-for-2026-to-match-2025-cuts

Q2 is out. Revenue basically flat. Free cash flow flat for the half. And yet the letter reads like a highlight reel: double-digit growth here, “strong performance” there, three bold priorities for the back half. Look closer, and the growth is concentrated in exactly the places you’d expect if the story were built on acquisitions rather than the underlying business.
Automation up 3%. Sounds modest until you remember that’s the segment carrying HashiCorp and Apptio (both bought, both being folded into the base, both getting a full year of “integration growth” before the comparison gets tough). Data up 18%, presented like IBM is winning the AI battle. Except Data is also where Confluent landed. Strip out an acquisition that closed months ago and ask what the legacy products in that category actually did on their own (that’s the number nobody puts in bold).
This is the oldest trick in inorganic growth: buy a company, fold its revenue into your segment, get a full year of easy comps while contracts get renewed and “blue-washed” under the new parent, and call the blended number your own performance. It works, for about a year. Then the acquisition anniversaries into the base, the easy comp disappears, and the segment needs the next acquisition to keep the story going. That’s not a growth engine. That’s a treadmill with a one-year lap time.
Meanwhile the parts of the business that were never propped up by an acquisition tell a rougher story. Infrastructure down 7%. Transaction Processing down 9% (they’re the same story told twice). Transaction Processing is the software that rides on Z. No mainframe refresh, no new Z capacity, no large deals closing (no new MLC licensing booked either). Hardware and software here aren’t two separate lines on a slide, they’re one engine: when Z doesn’t sell, the software tied to it doesn’t sell either, and both numbers fall together because they were never actually independent.
Which raises the uncomfortable question: how much of this business is actually layered on top of itself? Acquired revenue propping up Automation and Data while the base underneath goes quiet. Mainframe hardware and mainframe software rising and falling as one, dressed up as two separate growth stories. Each piece needs the piece below it to keep moving, or the whole structure stalls at once. Call it what you want (a treadmill, a house of cards, a pyramid where each new acquisition is there to cover for the last one’s fading comp): the pattern is the same, nothing underneath is generating growth on its own, it’s all leaning on something else that has to keep being fed.
Revenue flat overall at $17.2 billion. Free cash flow flat at $4.8 billion for the half. If the “real” IBM (the part that isn’t riding a recent purchase or a hardware refresh cycle) is shrinking while acquisitions and mainframe timing carry the average, the honest question isn’t “is IBM a software company.” It’s “whose growth is this, actually, and what happens the quarter the props stop arriving on schedule?”
And right on schedule, the answer on offer is another reshuffle (new titles, new coverage models, a new operating structure for the back half). But renaming jobs doesn’t change what’s underneath them. If the growth was never really organic to begin with, no amount of reorganizing who sells it or what they’re called is going to make it real.
And this isn’t a new discovery. The pattern has been visible on the ground for years (it just took a bad quarter for the market to finally notice what employees already knew). That’s the part worth sitting with: this wasn’t leadership missing a hidden signal. It was leadership seeing it, for years, and being too arrogant to admit the story needed correcting. Too invested in a stock price number (chasing $300 a share) to step back and ask whether the growth underneath it was real.
And even if the July reorg were the right diagnosis, it isn’t the right timeline. Deployment takes months to show up as revenue under the best conditions, longer when the team doing it just got reshuffled and has to relearn who owns what. A reorg launched mid-year, needing to prove itself by year-end, is asking for a “wow” effect on a clock that deployment has never once run on. Nobody deploys enterprise software in one or two quarters just because leadership needs a good Q4 slide. So the real question isn’t whether the numbers improve by December; it’s whether anyone at the top is honest enough to say, out loud, that they won’t, and that expecting otherwise is expecting a miracle from a plan that was never built with that timeline in mind.
Numbers tell the truth when you sit with them long enough. Put makeup on them (bold a growth rate, bury the segment it came from, skip the base it’s being compared against) and they’ll tell you whatever story needs telling that quarter. This quarter’s story needed rescuing. The last-minute reorg landing on top of it isn’t the fix. It’s one more coat of makeup on a number that’s going to need a lot more than that to hold up next quarter, when the acquisitions currently doing the heavy lifting start looking like ordinary IBM again.

This layoff is so-called cleaning house/overlapping functions....happens with mergers/acquisitions. Saw many heads hacked from top to bottom throughout my tenure and left voluntarily after 7 years.....could hear the axe being sharpened again. Turbulent times then....and still today. BUT so glad I moved on to a better/bigger life.

https://www.business-standard.com/companies/news/cognizant-bags-multi-million-dollar-deal-from-us-health-insurer-centene-126072101329_1.html

Guess who would be the buyer of EviCore. Maybe UHC, or CVS?

While Meta didn't pay Yann LeCun enough to stay, Brown came from AWS, so it was a cheaper hire option :)

Break down the remaining $2.6+ billion required to hit the full $5 billion operational goal

To bridge the $2.6 billion to $3.0 billion gap remaining to hit CEO Dan Schulman's full $5 billion OpEx reduction target by year-end 2026, Verizon and CFO Tony Skiadas have mapped out specific operational targets. These steps shift the strategy from immediate "people cuts" to long-term systemic and structural efficiencies.

The remaining cost-saving pipeline is split into four core operational areas:

1. The Next Waves of Workforce Reductions (~$1.0 Billion to $1.2 Billion)

Wall Street analysts estimate that between 8,000 and 10,000 additional positions must still be eliminated or outsourced by the end of 2026 to hit the targeted headcount savings.

Target Areas: Mid-level corporate management, overlapping regional operational staff, and back-office administrative departments.

Severance Impact: Verizon expects to clear an additional $350 million to $450 million in short-term severance charges during the back half of the year to structurally lower future payroll.

1. Full AI Scale Deployment (~$600 Million to $700 Million)Verizon is transitioning to an "AI-first company," utilizing its newly finalized AI automation stack to replace human tasks.

Customer Service Trimming: Transitioning basic billing inquiries, account plan upgrades, and routing calls directly to AI. AI customer interactions are scaling rapidly, yielding high customer satisfaction marks.

Contractor Spending Cuts: Drastically minimizing reliance on high-cost third-party customer service vendors and outsourced technical support agencies by automating workflows.

1. Network Modernization & Copper Sunset (~$500 Million to $600 Million)Maintaining parallel networks is highly inefficient. Verizon is rapidly accelerating the decommissioning of its legacy copper infrastructure.

Copper Decommissioning: Sunsetting old copper lines slashes power usage, expensive physical maintenance, and field-technician dispatch costs.

IT Stack Consolidation: Migrating older, fragmented software networks into unified cloud platforms, eliminating redundant software license fees and data silo upkeep.

1. Supply Chain, Real Estate, & Vendor Optimization (~$400 Million to $500 Million)

The final pillar targets overhead and procurement contracts across corporate and retail operations.

Real Estate Rationalization: Closing down corporate offices and shrinking administrative facilities to match hybrid-work realities.

Contract Renegotiations: Forcing major hardware, equipment, and network software vendors to lower pricing terms under the threat of supplier consolidation.

Total Remaining 2026 OpEx
Workforce Downsizing - Corporate & back-office cuts (8k–10k roles) $1.1B
AI Stack & Automation - Automating routine customer workflows & vendor cuts $650M
Network & IT Evolution - Copper network decom & software consolidation $550M Vendor & Real Estate - Lease terminations & procurement contract revisions $450M

Total Remaining Target~$2.75 Billion(Note: These figures exclude the separate $1 billion in annual cost synergies Verizon expects by 2028 from its ongoing Frontier Communications acquisition integration).

Heard that several companies are circling for merger / acquisition of FIS. This is the reason stock went from 38 to 41 as news was leaked and potential buyers stared accumulating stock from open market.
CapitalOne, Visa and Private Equity firm led by Silver Lakes partners have shown interest to buy.

Are they going to buy GW?

In accounting, goodwill represents the premium a company pays over the fair market value of net assets when it makes an acquisition. It captures intangible qualities like brand reputation, a skilled workforce, and business synergies.

The Composition of IBM's Goodwill :

The Source: IBM's goodwill has steadily grown due to its long history of corporate acquisitions.

Recent Activity: High-profile software and data acquisitions (such as HashiCorp, Confluent, and DataStax) have added to this balance.

Balance Sheet Context: While $89.33 billion is carried as an asset on IBM's books, it is an "illiquid" asset. In a worst-case scenario or liquidation, this value often cannot be recovered. This has led some financial analysts to monitor the company's high reliance on intangible assets as a potential point of shareholder risk.

Question:

Given the upcoming announcement of IBM results, what do you think IBM's goodwill value is now ?

Recent acquisitions over last 5 years that haven’t worked out and why?

Go

June 30th was the drop dead day to file the IPO. They've been shopping the IPO for 6 months and the market said "no thanks". Anemic growth (circa 1%), one time ebita bump from massive cost cuts and the McGraw IPO flop has put a nail in this coffin. I predict Apollo will look to carve up the peices and get their money back .KKR is probably pushing for the same thing. MH? he will be gone and I bet the process has already started. NK and the rest of the pretenders? Well they will jockey for position but Apollo will bring in an outsider to carve up the corpse. All the folks who jumped on this bandwagon are, I'm sure, not as upbeat as 3 weeks ago. They jumped on a sinking ship, threw the crew overboard and now their hubris will fade away rather quickly as they look to the exits

ExxonMobil has publicly stated that domestic manufacturing is a central pillar of India’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision, and the company has launched its own “Make in India” initiative to help realize that goal ExxonMobil+1.

Strategic Alignment with India’s Goals
India’s Viksit Bharat 2047 aims to transform the country into a self-reliant, globally competitive manufacturing hub. ExxonMobil sees strong synergies between its global energy infrastructure operations and India’s industrial ambitions, particularly in heavy engineering, shipbuilding, and specialized manufacturing ExxonMobil.

Current and Future Sourcing
Current scale: In the last two years, ExxonMobil affiliates have sourced USD 100 million worth of equipment from India ExxonMobil+1.

Future target: The company plans to scale sourcing to billions of dollars by the end of the decade ExxonMobil+1.

Focus areas:

Mega modules — large, pre-assembled units used in petrochemical plants and refineries.

Energy infrastructure equipment for LNG, refining, and chemical projects.

Shipbuilding synergies — both industries require heavy engineering, specialized suppliers, and complex logistics networks ExxonMobil+1.

Why India?
India offers:

A skilled workforce in engineering and fabrication.

Expanding connectivity (roads, ports, railways) to support large-scale manufacturing.

Resilient supply chains that can support complex, high-value projects ExxonMobil.

Impact
By leveraging India’s growing engineering and fabrication capabilities, ExxonMobil aims to:

Reduce reliance on foreign manufacturing for its global projects.

Support India’s industrial growth and energy security.

Create high-value jobs and technology transfer opportunities in the country ExxonMobil+1.

In short, ExxonMobil’s “Make in India” initiative is not just a corporate sourcing strategy — it’s a strategic investment in India’s manufacturing future, aligned with its national vision for 2047.

The acquisition of Comerica by Fifth Third Bank has generated significant local discussion. While the disappearance of a long-standing financial institution is noted, the controversy has escalated due to a perceived slight against a beloved local food item. This has drawn unexpected attention to the cultural impact of the merger. The public's reaction highlights the deep connection between community identity and local businesses. The situation has become a talking point beyond the financial implications of the deal.

Detroit, Michigan

https://www.freep.com/story/news/columnists/neal-rubin/2026/07/16/fifth-third-comerica-bank-purchase-american-coney-island-cincinnai-chili-tim-spence-grace-keros/90908987007/

https://www.therobarcher.com/p/fridays-court-hearing-could-shape

Bill drew an analogy to a 4x4 relay race in this morning’s earnings call.

“I feel really good about the baton passing. Think about the 4x100 relay. We’re passing the baton to someone that can run the last lap(?!?!) with a lot of speed.”

Is this him saying that Mike is going to fast track us to being acquired?

Fifth Third Bank is implementing additional layoffs following its significant acquisition of Comerica. The bank is also vacating Comerica's former downtown headquarters. These actions indicate a strategic restructuring phase for the financial institution. Further details regarding the scope and impact of these job cuts are expected. The company is actively managing its post-merger operational footprint.

Frisco, Texas

https://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/news/2026/07/16/fifth-third-comerica-layoffs-signage-comes-down.html

Polygon Labs has announced a new round of layoffs as it finalizes its acquisition of Coinme. This move is part of a strategic shift to transform the company into a blockchain-enabled payments firm. The acquisition of Coinme and Sequence is central to the development of the Polygon Open Money Stack. These workforce reductions follow previous cuts made earlier in the year. The company aims to achieve profitability in 2027 through these strategic changes.

San Francisco, California

https://www.theblock.co/post/408625/polygon-labs-second-round-of-layoffs-2026-finalize-coinme-acquisition

Seen this a hundred times. Massive layoffs, but useless mid manager and c-suites are mostly retained. No real stock value injection attempted.

It is a tired strategy, one used on so many brands in the past. The goal is not to bring the company back to its former glory. The goal eventually is to shop to other rising companies.

Verizon lost. T-Mobile handed us our hats.

A coalition of twelve states, led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta, has filed a lawsuit to block the proposed $110 billion merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. The states argue that the consolidation would reduce competition, leading to higher prices, lower quality content, and fewer opportunities for diverse storytelling in the film and television industry. Paramount has stated that the lawsuit misapplies antitrust laws and that they will vigorously defend the transaction. The Department of Justice had previously investigated and concluded the merger would increase competition. Industry observers note that smaller, independent filmmakers are already demonstrating market viability, challenging the necessity of such large-scale consolidation.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/julia-cassidy/2026/07/13/12-democratic-states-block-paramount-merge-with-warner-bros-n2679342

Walgreens Boots Alliance is now under private equity ownership following a significant acquisition. The company is implementing aggressive cost-cutting measures, including widespread layoffs and store closures. This strategic shift aims to streamline operations and improve profitability after a period of financial struggle. Former shareholders received a cash payout with the potential for additional returns from future asset divestitures. The company is fragmenting its business into independent units to focus on core competencies.

Deerfield, Illinois

https://www.kavout.com/market-lens/what-triggered-walgreens-shift-to-private-ownership

www.reuters.com/business/finance/stripe-advent-offer-buy-paypal-more-than-53-billion-sources-say-2026-07-15/

• Offer represents around 28% premium to PayPal's Tuesday closing price
• Banks committed about $50 billion in financing for the bid
• Stripe and Advent would each hold equal stakes in PayPal

Just to bring some geniuses onboard.

It’s been a year since Shell declared they were not going to make an offer on bp. And there have been almost no speculation about mergers or takeovers since then. This place must be so unappealing to the rest of the industry. Someone please just step up and do what need be done.

Zayo is bringing in former VZ leaders and setting the stage for Verizon to purchase them. This is their exit strategy. The new CEO came from the consulting industry and will help facilitate this

A judge has indicated the possibility of a buyer for the Schwebel Baking Company, which had announced plans to cease operations. This development comes after the Teamsters Union filed a lawsuit contesting the closure. The company, in business for over 120 years, is reportedly considering an expedited Chapter 11 bankruptcy to facilitate a sale. Discussions are ongoing between parties to determine the feasibility of this potential purchase. The identity of the prospective buyer has not yet been disclosed.

Youngstown, Ohio

https://www.wtae.com/article/schwebel-baking-company-buyer/71921509

https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/articles/cisco-csco-eyes-sentinelone-italy-061043025.html

An interesting read below:

AI may have begun as a race to build ever-larger models, but the battle is increasingly shifting to the infrastructure underneath them. Last week brought two notable reminders: Qualcomm’s nearly $4 billion acquisition of AI software startup Modular and reports that chipmaker SambaNova is finalizing an $800 million funding round at a $10 billion valuation. In an interview, GV investor Dave Munichiello speaks with Crunchbase News on a range of topics including why the software layer connecting increasingly diverse AI hardware is becoming strategically valuable, what Qualcomm’s Modular acquisition signals for other startups, and why he still sees a path to blockbuster IPOs in AI infrastructure. Plus, it’s not just the Modular deal: Crunchbase data shows a broad resurgence in billion-dollar startup exits, we revisit last week’s biggest U.S. funding rounds, and an investor makes the case that venture capital needs better data.
A GV investor on its 10x Modular return and AI’s next shift
As demand for AI inference explodes, GV managing partner Dave Munichiello says the next wave of infrastructure startups will be defined by efficiency: getting more value out of scarce, expensive compute. In an interview with Crunchbase News, Munichiello discusses why AI workloads are moving toward “disaggregated inference,” how open-source models could change who buys and runs AI infrastructure, and why he believes hardware-heavy startups can still grow into large, independent public companies. He also shares what the firm learned from its early investment in Modular, for which it is poised to earn a 10x return on dollars invested with the startup’s acquisition by Qualcomm announced last week.

You think you have it bad now?
Just wait until you are expected to be on call and available 24/7 under Musk.
Oh, yeah- he loves H1-bs, too.

VZ to acquire Dish out of bankruptcy, laying off massive amounts of head count to pay for it.

Layoffs to fly under the radar of the larger story

seems like this could be the biggest thing happening to this company.

anyone has seen any sign to confirm what the news reported?

I asked AI for a friend about Possible acquisition of Teradata.

“ Teradata is widely considered a notable and highly viable takeover target for private equity (PE) firms and larger tech conglomerates. Multiple financial institutions and market dynamics point to Teradata being a prime candidate for a strategic acquisition“

Just sayin…. If the pattern fits…. Wear it.

They keep talking about the majority of the minority vote being needed to merge DT and Tmo. So how would you do that if you knew the current minority would vote no? You push them out. How? Drop the stock price so people panic sell. Lay them off so they are forced to sell. Devalue the company as much as possible so a buyout must happen for the org to survive. Once DT acquires TMo, sell to starlink because the FCC can't block a german owned company.

The goal isn't financial success right now, it can't be.

The Blue washing marches on. . .

https://www.reddit.com/r/IBM/comments/1uqubjb/red_hat_it_is_being_moved_to_ibm_effective_oct_1/

I thought it was odd that the job listing is for either Berwyn, PA or NYC. We're looking at two completely different applicant pools there, and does this mean they've acquired a new PA office in Berwyn, or is this just the Archer office?

"We’re seeking a future team member for the role of Vice President, Full Stack Engineer to join our Managed Accounts Solutions Platform team. This role is located in Berwyn, PA or New York, NY."

I haven't heard anything new about Pennington or Wilmington office closures, but then, the way this place operates we probably won't hear anything until the last minute.