#speculation

I saw this today via a Google alert.

"Market attention recently turned to ongoing reports about DXC exploring strategic alternatives. Some analysts have noted renewed takeover interest from private equity groups, which likely stirred price volatility and new speculation about its true value."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/investors-reassess-dxc-technology-takeover-050450354.html

Today we have a “there’s power in partnership firmwide broadcast.”

What do we think this will be about?

Best guesses and snarky speculation will be accepted

I’ve been looking on this site for the past week and what I have gathered is nobody actually knows anything. Only thing I have seen is a lot of speculation. If you actually know something bring the proof. Also, does anybody think that maybe the acquisition of Frontier and once the acquisition goes through that will be the actual layoffs? Wouldn’t they just layoff the people that worked for Frontier if the jobs are already taken at Verizon? From what I’ve read Verizon will layoff 4,000-5,000+ people from Frontier once the acquisition is completed. I may be wrong but this makes sense.

What is everyone hearing?

This is pure speculation but with the earnings call AND CX Summit coming up, I would assume now's the time to announce the new CEO, right?

Sampath cancelled the VCG All hands meeting for next week. Is he on the way out?

There’s been no official communication. Nothing in the media either. We’re completely stumbling in the dark. Why? Do they want to make this even more tense than it already is? Our livelihoods are on the line.

Heard from a few peers that Monday 11/03 will be announcement for another staff reduction this year.

where’s the genius posting weekly that AML is about to have layoffs - after AGAIN - for the 12 time in a row - not having layoffs. “Mr. Shut Up” should be the only reply to that person who keeps posting their propaganda. Additionally, this is the 8th layoff I’ve posted on here - accurately.

Seems to me going private would allow us to accelerate towards goals.

Stifel Chairman and Chief Executive Ronald Kruszewski on Wednesday sent a memo to the company’s employees, including 2,300 advisors, seeking to counter rising speculation that he could sell the 135-year-old firm.

“Let me be clear. Stifel is not being sold to Raymond James or to anyone else,” Kruszewski wrote in the memo, which referred to a report in industry publication WealthManagement.com.

The article had linked Stifel to a potential deal with regional rival Raymond James Financial. The publication cited anonymous sources who said that legal pressure and rising costs tied to barred Miami broker Chuck Roberts could put pressure on St​​ifel to sell and that Raymond James was discussed as a “likely buyer.”

Kruszewski called the report “ridiculous and misleading” and compared it to a “White House leak.”

“I’m just surprised Stifel isn’t being linked to Russian collusion,” Kruszewski wrote in the memo, titled “Setting the Record Straight (With a Smile).”

A Stifel spokesperson confirmed the memo but declined further comment.

Raymond James did not return requests for comment. Wednesday’s article noted that, “[I]t is unclear how formal the talks are between the firms or if an agreement is imminent.”

Raymond James trades at a market capitalization of around $31 billion compared to Stifel’s $12 billion. The St. Petersburg, Florida-based firm has around 8,900 brokers.

“I know the folks at Raymond James,” wrote Kruszewski, who has led Stifel since 1997. “They’re a nice company, but let’s be honest, I believe Stifel is number one.”

The question of a sale surfaced last week on Stifel’s third quarter earnings call during which BMO Capital Markets analyst Brennan Hawken asked about whether the company was for sale and noted that, “Many investors believe that [it] can make for a good target.”

Kruszewski, 67, responded that there was “no need” to sell the company and that questions seem to be driven by concerns about whether he could run out of energy and want to sell.

“That ain’t the case here,” Kruszewski said on the call. “I’m not looking to do anything.”

A source close to the company said that Kruszewski was concerned following the earnings call that plans to sell its non-core independent brokerage business had been conflated with an intention to sell the company.

Stifel on Monday announced it had agreed to sell its $9 billion-asset independent contractor unit to Equitable Advisors, confirming a report earlier this month.

Common Wealth said the same thing and they sold like 4 months later. I definatley think they are selling now.

In the "AI Ponzi Flywheel" circulates money in a self-reinforcing loop which Cisco is a part of. This artificially inflates valuations without any broad external revenue

First, Nvidia and AMD inject low-cost financing directly into OpenAI (like Nvidia's $100 billion commitment and AMD's warrants for cheap stock)

this is for infrastructure purchases.

OpenAI then deploys these funds to acquire cloud compute from Oracle and CoreWeave (Nvidia-backed), along with networking equipment from Cisco via the Stargate UAE project.

Then, Oracle and CoreWeave reinvest OpenAI's payments to procure more Nvidia and AMD GPUs, expanding their capacity, while Microsoft amplifies the cycle through equity stakes and Azure integrations. Hype-fueled stock surges enable warrant exercises or stake sales, recycling profits back into further financing rounds. This internal churn sustains $20 trillion market caps and reported growth, like Nvidia's $300-500 billion projections and $64 billion cash flow, but hinges on perpetual inflows amid low data center utilization (60-90%) and ongoing losses ($10 billion annually for OpenAI)

This is a more fragile system than dot-com and the housing bubble combined. A single disruption could evaporate trillions in value.

the actual utility from AI is minimal. "agentic AI", "vibe coding" are losers and cause more problems than they solve.

AI is just a summarization machine that also makes it easy to pump out horrifcally tasteless videos for the masses

It'd be an interesting development.

How soon will Srini follow the lead of his new buddy at Amazon?

https://www.geekwire.com/2025/amazon-reportedly-set-to-lay-off-30000-corporate-employees-in-massive-workforce-cut/

Lots of speculation lately. Haven’t heard sh-t

Any rumors on buyers for PSS? Panasonic might make sense given their partnership earlier this year.

How are we doing?
Who's at the helm?
Are we making $$$?
Do they treat the worker better?

The Q3 call will be a disaster as most quarterly calls have been since i left. Capt Clown will then go on about re-invention and how 'the street' is believing in the re-invention. LOL
Friend who is still there told me that Xerox isn't paying any bills until the new year. Probably won't have cash for payroll. Rest assured the SLT will get their bonuses and probably a raise. Congratulations to Steve, Louie, Miranda and all involved, you can celebrate running an ICON into the ground.

Big money is at stake. Seasoned pro is required.

Take a look at the FI price history for all years. If you know FI (FISV), you would know that FI has always been a slow and steady stock with 8 splits starting in 1991 and the last being in 2018.

Fiserv was the slow, ever increasing, dependable stock with splits that realized compounding value. It was a great stock to own inside or outside the company.

Look at the odd outlier behavior starting in 2019. It's almost like the stock was severely manipulated because it does not follow the historical trend. Remember, the stock price graph doesn't lie. Even if you don't believe it was manipulated, you can see the fingerprints of something other than a normal Fiserv at least in historical terms.

Some important quotes we can ponder to assess the caliber of our past leader:

"What the heck’s the commissioner of Social Security? What am I going to do?”

“You know, one of my great skills, I’m one of the great Googlers on the East Coast," he said. "Put that as the headline for the post: ‘great Googler-in-chief, chief-in-Googler,’ or whatever."

Yes, there will be cuts, but I don’t think it will be as bad as everyone expects. This feels like one of those situations where the story keeps growing the more it is repeated, while the truth is probably closer to where it started.

Proficio sounds like the old ricoh line aka Aficio... These must be relabeled ricoh production boxes? Launch date March 2026...Love the optimism.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251022000698/en/Xerox-Introduces-Two-New-Digital-Presses-to-Production-Ecosystem-at-PRINTING-United

The current total XRX Goodwill is only $1.91 BN, but.... Lexmark has goodwill as well. With a total market cap of less than 1/3 of the Goodwill, you have to wonder if they have ANY Goodwill value left. They wrote down 1BN a yer ago when the stock was at $9, now it's $3. I was thinking before the Q3 loss would be 1BN, but now I'm thinking closer to $2 BN.

First of all, I agree that slack org chart is buggy. But usually it’s randomly affecting anyone, not showing patterns like what we observed recently

If the slack org chart sudden change means anything, i don’t think it’s comprehensive. Not everybody who will be laid off were shown as orphaned. But people who were orphaned may have some changes coming to them as something changed in AD that triggered some changes in okta that somehow, maybe unintentionally, got reflected in slack org. This change may mean the person is changing manager/group or potentially will get laid off.

I suspect that whatever changes that they were doing in Slack were interrupted by the commotion in the rumor site, and the activities stop. That maybe a reason that these changes were not comprehensive.

"Companies post ghost jobs to build large applicant pools for future needs, create an image of growth to boost INVESTOR or employee morale, or maintain visibility and engagement on job boards to game algorithms. Other reasons include budget constraints, a difficulty in filling highly specialized roles, or automatic copying of listings by job boards. "

Current ELT will be ousted in 1-2 years. John hess will bring new elt. Another transformation will take place in 2027-2028

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJzETvTMUx8

And they say "if expectation of AI become less optimistic". Less optimistic? What happens when all their lies are completely exposed? Sam Altman makes Elon Musk look like a truth teller.

Not trying to sound alarmist, but after the recent RIF, it’s fair to say things feel uncertain right now. Seeing cuts happen after H1 is definitely out of the ordinary, and if performance targets don’t hit the mark, this could become a pattern. Even if that’s not the case, April isn’t as far away as it seems.

The reality is that nobody ever thinks it’ll happen to them until it does. Staying ready — keeping your resume and LinkedIn current — is just smart practice. It’s not about doom and gloom; it’s about being prepared in case the winds shift again.

In a surprising turn of events, industry insiders are whispering that Dell Technologies might be weighing its options for a potential sale. While no official statements have been made, sources close to the matter suggest that preliminary conversations with private equity firms and potential strategic buyers have quietly begun behind closed doors.

Dell, a long-standing giant in the PC and enterprise hardware space, has seen its business evolve dramatically in recent years. With growing competition, ongoing market shifts, and recent volatility in tech stocks, some speculate the company may be exploring ways to unlock shareholder value or streamline its sprawling operations.

Fueling the rumor is Dell’s relatively quiet stance on recent earnings calls regarding long-term strategic plans, as well as unusual movements in its stock price and insider activity. Some analysts believe a sale, or even a significant restructuring, could be part of a broader strategy to respond to tightening margins in hardware and the growing dominance of cloud-native infrastructure providers.

Of course, without confirmation from Dell or involved parties, all of this remains speculation. Still, in an industry known for its rapid consolidation and bold moves, the possibility of Dell being up for sale is one worth watching closely.

Stay tuned.

This is how I understand things will play out as well. If anyone can confirm, please do.

All of this is purely speculation, but given that remote workers are included in Phase 2, the coming layoffs will probably be related to other factors and not necessarily if you're remote or not. Then next year, you'll all be assigned a NY/LA office and you'll need to relocate by Q3, or else be let go.
OP: @ap+1k6xpxpth

Any intel on what the meeting(s) tomorrow are about? More layoffs? Restructuring? Consolidation?

More layoffs before the holidays then a merger or acquisition on the horizon. Goldman Sachs likely. The reduction in cost, the outsourcing, the reorganization. It makes sense and I’d bet money on it.

Was there an announcement I miss? Or is it just speculation?

All I want to say is that, I hope this is being carefully managed. This and the housing bubble could burst at once... however, they keep listening to the very same people that are creating this bubble...

x x x x x x x

The AI bubble is the only thing keeping the US economy together, Deutsche Bank warns

When the bubble bursts, reality will hit far harder than anyone expects

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED: Warnings about the overinflated prospects of a still-hypothetical "AI economy" continue to mount. Some analysts expect the AI bubble to burst sooner rather than later, arguing that current investment growth cannot continue indefinitely in a finite world.

According to a research note recently sent to clients by Deutsche Bank, the AI bo-m is currently helping the US economy avoid a recession but it cannot continue indefinitely. George Saravelos, Global Head of FX Research at Deutsche Bank, said the US would be close to a recession this year if Big Tech were not spending so heavily on building new AI data centers.

The "AI machines" are literally saving the US economy right now, Saravelos said, but this kind of growth cannot be sustained unless spending remains on an ever-growing course. Nvidia, the major supplier of powerful AI accelerators used in data centers, could potentially bear much of the residual growth the US economy has experienced in recent months.

"The bad news is that in order for the tech cycle to continue contributing to GDP growth, capital investment needs to remain parabolic. This is highly unlikely," Saravelos said.

Deutsche Bank highlights that much of this growth comes from new facilities being built by human workers, while the AI technology and services sector has yet to make a meaningful contribution to the GDP.

Around half of the market gains captured by the S&P 500 index have been driven by tech-related stocks, Deutsche Bank warns. A separate report by Torsten Sløk of Apollo Management concurs, noting that equity investors are "dramatically overexposed" to AI investments.

According to analysts at Bain & Co., even with all this spending, AI is likely to generate insufficient revenue to fund further growth initiatives. By 2030, anticipated demand for AI services would require $2 trillion in annual revenues, leaving a shortfall of $800 billion globally to meet that demand.

Nvidia recently committed $100 billion to OpenAI to build an additional 10 gigawatts of AI computing capacity, while OpenAI escalated the investment by planning a full network of new AI data centers. Meanwhile, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has acknowledged that AI investors are behaving irrationally, and some will inevitably lose significant sums of money as a result.

Will AI capital expenditure continue to surge with staggering figures and impossibly high revenue expectations? Baidu CEO Robin Li recently predicted that 99 percent of so-called AI companies will not survive the bubble, while legitimate businesses are now squandering money and potential productivity gains in an attempt to turn everything into an AI workload.

https://www.techspot.com/news/109626-ai-bubble-only-thing-keeping-us-economy-together.html

MORE WARNINGS:

AI bo-m drives record S&P 500 valuations, but Goldman Sachs warns of $1 trillion risk ahead

Investors debate how long Big Tech's AI spree can last

https://www.techspot.com/news/109358-ai-bo-m-drives-record-sp-valuations-but-goldman.html

x x x x x x x

MSFT
or
GooGle
or
TSMC
or
??

A mandatory shift bid, AI, moving people’s roles, changing up departments (Which can often be a sign of layoffs creeping up), and changing metrics? Some of this helps, but I feel as if these changes are being implemented to make a lot of people voluntarily leave to avoid layoffs. It smells of constructive dismissal/discharge in some form. Maybe I’m wrong. This job has had its pros and cons. I’m sorry to those of you who have to endure whatever Wayfair throws.

Disaster or outperform ?

Does anybody think this spike in stock is justified? Anybody?