Ads will sell or be aquired by another company.
Their name is too tarnished, and its cost effective.
When this happens, they will continue,"streamlining", aka firing people.
I would say ads will dwindle down to 5k u.s based employees and 2k overseas into another corp that buys them.
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I'm curious to hear your opinion about what company might buy ADS. There are a couple of things that to me would make ADS VERY unattractive to most potential buyers. First, they have 160 brand partners, but most are far too small for other issuers to want. In fact, if you consider the major competitors (Synchrony, Citi, etc.), only 10-12 of ADS' programs would meet their minimum program size requirements. Would they really want to be stuck with 150 programs they don't want just to get the dozen or so that are attractive?
Second, Alliance Data's platform is an absolute relic. Major competitors are on TSYS or FDR and have vast capabilities that ADS will never have. If the company buying ADS is a new entrant to the card space and in need of a platform, why in the world would they buy that platform? And if the buyer is an established issuer, would they really want the hassle of converting 160 programs (most of which they don't want) to TSYS or FDR?
I ask only because other threads frequently mention ADS being acquired, which would explain the reckless cutting of payroll, but as I continue to think about it, I can't think of a single company that would really want what ADS' platform or its client roster.