What are you thoughts on First Friday today? People were asking tough questions in Slack. I doubt we will get answers. I will be prepping my resume this weekend.
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Greetings,
I had predicted office closures after seeing the last quarterly filing. My thoughts were that Cengage would consolidate power in the affordable Mason office, where salaries are low and poaching companies are few.
I believe KY will be shuttered shortly and although I would be shocked if Boston fell, it could happen. Is the FF call public?
@3kjg+1ovw8Eel Cengage has already been whacked. Its just a matter of where the body is going to be disposed of.
Bankruptcy used to be something you whispered about. “Did you hear he went bankrupt?” It was the scarlet letter.
It’s now just another tool. For companies it’s no different than any other strategy. There is no shame. This is not a guess.
MH got rich when Cengage emerged from bankruptcy.
It is likely out of MH's hands at this point. The private equity consultants are probably running the show now and he's just taking orders at this point. I said before that this feels like private equity stripping the company down for a sale. Increasing profitability by 33% in this industry just means you're going to have to drastically slash payroll.
Private equity really is like the mafia, and this is going to be a bust out. They will ruthlessly cut jobs and take as much cash out of the operations as possible before they throw Cengage's corpse onto the sale or bankruptcy pile. They don't care what happens to anyone as long as they get their end.
Im no MH fan and think he’s a chump. BUT he is most certainly under immense pressure. He was basically tasked to clean up someone else’s Chernobyl size mess.
Those private equity guys are no different than the mob. They may not use g-ns or violence but they are serious people and HATE to lose $$. And they take no prisoners.
Agreed that the slack channel questions weren't as ki----s as usual. When the new reorg demands profitability to 33% in every sector, should the town hall explaining this new project start off with playing "Ain’t No Mountain High Enough?" Beyond out of touch. But yes, they were behind the ball a lot and this is the first time MH sounded as if he knew people weren't buying his sh!t. His stammering about keeping the Boston office open, did he say a 15-year-lease?
I honestly wished I hadn’t even listened to the call. They acted like robots and MH seems like he was nervous. Was very insulted when one of them said “do you need to know or just want to know.” Seemed callous since many people have worked here a long time and have relationships. The whole thing su-ks and for what? More corporate greed.
Definitely feels like they used AI to answer 99% of the questions.