Thread regarding Hess Corp. layoffs

If the deal were to fall through, I don’t see how the following doesn’t happen in some form or fashion:

1. Senior leadership changes (accountability for failed deal)
2. Org benchmarking exercise to restructure (recalibrate due to unit costs, excessive promotions, and uncontrolled headcount adds)
3. Voluntary enhanced retirement (Phase I)
4. Layoffs (Phase II)
5. Sell Malaysia & JDA business

The job market is getting flooded with M&A / Layoff personnel, tough times ahead. Prayers for all involved in this patch trying to weather the storm.

If the acquisition doesn't pass arbitration, the smart play is for JBH to sell off parts of the company, which would be detrimental to Hess employees. Sales would target companies already operating the play, which wouldn’t require additional staff for the new acreage or blocks. Exxon has no interest in buying Guyana, nor do they want anyone else to do so. With this strategy, Hess could maintain a small non-operational presence, allowing the company to sustain itself within a year. Hess's culture has already declined significantly from its former state, and it seems unlikely that it can recover from this situation. While Chevron might not be the preferred course, it is the only one that could accommodate 65% of Hess's workforce.

Wishful thinking only

Better for the Hess Employees!

The largest immediate impact would be on Hess share price. Mostly likely, a significant share price correction in the negative direction because the failure to merge implies that Hess cannot be sold to another entity unless we sell Guyana to Exxon/CNOOC first.
You may want to be thinking strategically around that time frame: if you hold a lot of Hess stock, do you want to continue holding on to it and hoping for a conversion to CVX shares when the deal closes OR do you want to get out of Hess stock before it takes a dive (in case of no merger) and re-invest elsewhere? Also, if you're of the opinion that the merger won't happen, the time to buy Hess stock again may be right after that initial drop.......

Medium to long term is a bit harder to predict, but Hess is generating close to a $1B in revenue every quarter right now and that revenue will only go up as each Guyana FPSO comes online. That would imply farm in opportunities with other operators (GoM and worldwide) or actually purchasing a small operator with a ton of growth potential. Having said that, I don't foresee JH staying on as a CEO (the S-4 filing shows that he's been trying to sell Hess to Chevron for at least 3 years now), but I also don't foresee any layoffs at Hess, either. It does look like Hess would need all of its employees to continue pursuing future growth opportunities -- regardless of whether they occur organically (through exploration or farm-ins) or through M&A where Hess is actually the buyer.