He will begin by saying that business was better in Q4 but it wasn't enough to cover shortfalls earlier.
He will say a bunch of word salad that contains the following important phrases:
"Where we work"
"How we work"
"Centers of Excellence"
What all the gobbledygook will mean is this: Elliot has hired McKinsey. If you don't know what McKinsey is, google for "McKinsey John Oliver." McKinsey has developed the "brilliant" strategy to replace EVERYONE in the US and Europe ("High COL countries" as they say it), with people in cheap countries.
The "centers of excellence" will all be cities they're hiring in, like Bangalore. If you are not already in India, then your job is at a very high risk NO EXCEPTIONS.
This will not a be a big one-and-done layoff like we've seen in the past. This is expected to take at least a year, but over the next year most of the people at this company will be gone, especially those in:
Operations
Technology
Outcomes
and to a somewhat lessor extent Data Science.
I don't know about Gracenote since I don't know anyone over there. I think that they will be hit hard but not as hard as Audience measurement.
Leadership has been fighting this for at least six months. Everyone knows this will fail , but Elliot and their McKinsey mo--ns are insistent. Leadership has been offered bonuses "upon successful execution of The Plan." Golden handcuffs. Everything is very secretive. They seem to think they will be able to hire our replacements, get us to train them, and then fire us.
If you're on H1B you need to leave now. If you need your paycheck you need to leave now. If you can recover from getting laid off then stick around for a severance, but you will be required to train your replacement.
I hope this is the kick some people need. I know some people have been here many years. Some of you are passionate about your work. Some of you have all your friends here. We all need to come to terms with the fact that this company is already dead. Accept it and move on before it ruins our lives.