Thread regarding Noble Energy Inc. layoffs

w/ the Rosetta acquisition, the number of incompetent people just went up...when times were booming and Rosetta could not get people, it was hiring people into engineering positions without engineering degrees. If you want a laugh, look at the linked in profiles of some of the rosetta peeps

Noble's annual interest expense is approximately $300,000,000 to $350,000.000 per year.

Having worked at other large E&P companies I can assure you Noble has way more incompetent people than any other place I have worked. I was shocked when I came to Noble.

Finally, somebody with some financial acumen and the ability to objectively work through numbers. It does not matter what kind of dress you put on it. A pig is still a pig. The Rosetta acquisition was a lousy financial move for Noble. As a Noble employee I care more about fiscal responsibility than about anything else. Sure, there are some people here that are on the lower end of the curve. There is a bell curve to many things in life and Noble is no exceptions. Noble does have it's fair share of underperformers just like many other E&P companies. Those underperformers may not contribute much but nothing will take a company down faster than a lack of understanding of finance. The rants about people on this board are misguided. What we all really should be worried about is whether the large company investments will eventually pay off. It will certainly be a very long time (if ever) before the Rosetta acquisition will be a positive financial return for our company.

Stover and the rest of the executive suite are whistling past the graveyard. This company was doing poorly when compared to their peer group when oil was $100/barrel.

You forgot to mention that Stover also said 'Noble’s strong assets and its healthy balance sheet have helped protect the company from the slump no matter how long it lingers. And the company, which recently closed on its $2.1 billion acquisition of Rosetta Resources, is in a good position to grow even further as other companies are cutting back'. Really?! I think Dave forgot to mention the 'additional' acquired debt of $1.8 billion you referred to. And for context Noble issued 41 million shares of stock for this $2.1 billion acquisition so ~$50/share which represented a 38% premium on Rosetta's stock value. At Noble's current $30/share that represents a 40% decline in Rosetta's asset value (from $50) so add that to the 38% premium they paid over the Rosetta stock price at acquisition and they paid almost 80% more than what the likely book value of Rosetta would be today - good job Dave!