Will there be more execs to leave in engineering and ops?
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There will not be 25% wfr. Anyone affected in a divestiture will become part of the buying company at least for a while
OT will have 25% less staff but won't actually have to do any wfr
@et because 25 percent of the company is being carved out. If an employee isn't a seller, they are supporting that selling in some capacity. There will be a proportional WFR for that segment of employees.
@es
Thanks!
These types of needed actions are exactly what I would expect with new Board members in place and institutional and other large investors at their limit of patience.
I am very glad to hear that the Board is finally going to 'right the ship'. This has been rumored for quite a while.
That said I am very very sorry for the loyal employees about to be WFR'd.
I hope all have been looking for jobs as the writing has been on the wall since right after the MFI acquisition which was handled very badly, especially the integration.
This sadly is only part of what brought OT to where it is today.
Long before MFI it had an unaddressed Leadership issue which created a toxic chaotic culture...that was routinely addressed by WFR after WFR.
This didn't solve the root cause, as that sat at the top of the org chart for over a decade.
How can they do layoffs when we are so stretched ?
@ej there are 2 BUs in late stage carve out. Changes this week are part of compressing the company. Overlapping and unnecessary functions will be cleaned (WFRs) with accountability now within the individual BUs. Expect divestitures to be ready for announcement soon after the new CEO is on boarded. January is a big month for OT. A large chunk of the company - 25 percent of its revenue producing business units - are being sold. There will be 25 percent LESS support needed , all WFRs.
@ck
Divestiture transactions are deal specific.
Many times a divestiture (or a carve out) will only include the product and those employees specifically identified in the transaction documents. Example of this would be: A company wants to shed a product that no longer aligns with the portfolio of products and services they offer. Depending on the buyer, (and product) it could be just the IP and maybe a few Engineers/Sales Reps to support it thru the transition. There likely would be a TSA in place so the seller would support the transaction until the buyer fully stands up (Integrates) the product into their company's infrastructure.
Or perhaps just the IP is sold. Large divestitures may have a large group of employees transferred to the new company and even then often they are made redundant once the product is fully integrated.
OT'S error was it took all employees and almost immediately laid most off..thus impacting KT (including process/infrastructure operations) which impacted their ability to fully and swiftly integrate..and the costs of that ultimately impacted the P&L. OT has never acknowledged this error so these issues continue to this day. This explains why there are new Board Members and also the high profile departures OT is now seeing. I would fully anticipate more of these departures and yes a lot of WFR'S. OT's over compensated Sr. Leadership and a Board who was not willing to address the elephant in the room led to today's circus. They brought this on themselves.
Significant wfr, when and what groups ?
In divestitures, don't the staff working on the product usually move to the new company? So even though the staff leave open text. They aren't laid off
I predict by the end of June Shannon Bell will be the only remaining ELT member from the Mark B era. And predict we may change our name to show we are a changed company.
@b1 SMB and Consumer business will probably go first and the goofy characters with go with it, which is why I think Sandy is gone. OpenText needs to get back to its enterprise roots focusing on complex large deals. This way too we don’t need to worry about our long in the tooth disconnected e-commerce systems. Also our enterprise partnerships are lacking and we need to focus on that so hopefully management will allocate resources to that along with serious marketing vs circus characters.
@b1 Oof. Entirely realistic, but just Oof. Thanks for the heads up.
Get ready. Big Divesture coming soon. This week's firing of the CMO and her minions is part of the prep for the new CEO. The big org change divvying up two sets of employees, those who report up through sales and those who do not. Up next, significant WFRs within each org for underlings. Then, once the first divesture is announced in the coming months, leaders no longer needed are exited and the percent of people in the support org equal to the burden of that non core asset are no longer needed. In the end, 25 percent of the company business will be sold. So 25 percent plus of people outside of sales are no longer needed.
She is not on the Board- However the Board has many new members (thank god)..including the CIO from Cisco.
https://www.opentext.com/about/board-of-directors
@a2 We can only H O P E.
Isn't she on the board ?
@a3
The Board selects CEO'S.
Now they may solicit input (from more than 1 C-Suite executive) but it's the Board who will ultimately decide.
They will vote (must be a quorum present and at least a majority to finalize selection).
It does makes sense to get Shannon's input and others.
The Board also has to consider their (long suffering) major institutional and other large investors.
Lots to consider..many will be solicited for input.
I am sure a professional search firm has been engaged..but it's the Boards call.
But Shannon is picking the CEO so the CEO will hardly fire her then ?
My guess absolutely. I think Shannon or Savinay will be around for 5-6 months after a new CEO arrives. CEO will likely bring in his own EVPs