Thread regarding DST Systems layoffs

OMG, this sounds like a crazy man. What a nightmare.

Wow you cannot even make this stuff up!

There’s your layoff target folks; 3,500 souls, hangers on, empty seats (soon to be). $350M wow if there’s truly that much fat to be cut, the shareholders ought to sue Hooly and the board because Stone stole the company.

How are those number?

Hmm would think a CEO could make their numbers without being a dick

There is our "new boss" "hanging" us out to dry underneath slow bags of "pee bags" dripping on us....thanks for the "support" Bill!!!...Yeah I'm out of here!!! What a douche...!!

“So I’m just kind of flow-through-pee-bagging it.”

This is gross! Who talks like this?

Gee, I guess our Ignites subscription was cancelled so we wouldn't have access to all the nice (and not crass at all!) things he has to say about us.

wow...who wouldn't want to work for this guy?!

SSC CEO Before Layoffs: We Have No Room for 'Hangers'

Article published on June 28, 2018

By Jackie Noblett

DST employees were hit Tuesday with massive layoffs, but the decision to fire 6% of the back-office providers’ staff should have been no surprise to those listening to the firm’s CEO speak to investors last week.

“When you look at how do you wring costs out of places, you don’t have to work very hard,” said Bill Stone, CEO of Windsor, Conn.-based SSC Technologies, on June 13 at the William Blair Growth Stock Conference, according to a replay of the presentation hosted on SSC’s website. He noted that DST had 3,500 “empty seats,” which he described as “ridiculous.”

“What are they going to do, a job fair or something? What, are they crazy?”

The CEO said in a free-flowing question and answer session that he “hated” letting people go and didn’t want to work with people who liked firing staff. But at the same time, he emphasized that executives “really are focused on numbers.”

“If we have a job and we have work to do and somebody likes the pay and we like them, well great, that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “But if we don’t have any work, then we ought not be having a bunch of hangers.”

SSC officials declined to comment on Stone’s William Blair presentation, but the CEO put out a statement yesterday saying it was “difficult to part with many good people” but a necessary step to have a “more nimble” organization.

“We wish everyone well in their pursuit of new opportunities in this period of historically low unemployment,” Stone wrote in the Tuesday statement.

The cuts come two months after SSC closed its $5.4 billion deal to acquire Kansas City, Mo.-based DST.

At the time of the deal’s announcement, officials lauded the high level of loyalty of the firm’s mutual fund and other financial services and healthcare clients, notably a 90% retention rate. Further, some 90% the combined revenue of DST/SSC business is recurring.

But officials have also said they want to boost DST’s margins, which hover in the high teens, to about 30% in the next several years. Meanwhile, the vendor — along with other providers of recordkeeping software and back-office services — has been squeezed by declining shareholder accounts and pricing pressure from fund shops looking to reduce their own costs.

Last year, SSC posted margins of 41% on revenue of $1.7 billion and operating earnings of $696 million. This year, the firm expects to deliver overall margins of 34% on revenue of $3.4 billion as a result of the DST deal.

While some of that margin expansion at DST could come from new revenues the company generates from cross-selling, officials have also set out a plan to eliminate $150 million in annual spending by 2020.

Reaching the SSC’s financial targets, namely improving margins and generating cash to pay down debt used to finance the deal, is a high priority for Stone, who described himself as a “numbers nut.”

“I don’t really care whether you are tall or short, whether you’re a male or female; it’s ‘how are those numbers?’” he explained, adding, “Because when I come to these [investor conferences], no one is asking me how I’m feeling. They’re asking me, ‘How are those numbers?’” he said.

The result is that he must pass that focus on the bottom line through to his team without resistance, like fluid through a catheter: “So I’m just kind of flow-through-pee-bagging it.”

Some of the cost-savings job cuts are about reducing redundant functions in areas such as human resources, finance and administration, according to insiders who asked to remain anonymous because of company policies against speaking publicly about the layoffs. But the cuts also reached marketing, design, client service and product management roles, several sources say.

Heavy cuts were seen both in the suburban Boston and greater Kansas City areas, those sources note.

SSC officials declined to comment on the breakdown of layoffs by geography or job role.

One consultant, who declined to be named because the person’s firm does business with SSC, says the company’s history with acquisitions has been to focus on “cash cow” businesses with sticky revenue and then to expend more effort on the balance sheet than on improving the products.

“If I’m an asset manager and a heavy user of whatever system gets acquired by SSC, I worry about this,” the person said.

But another employee who asked to remain anonymous noted that the firm has invested in “growth areas.”

Indeed, the shop has several fund accountant and fund administration positions open at its ALPS Fund Services office in Denver and operations roles in its brokerage services business in Minneapolis, according to postings on the company’s LinkedIn jobs page.

SS it’s ‘how are those numbers?’” he explained, adding, “Because when I come to these [investor conferences], no one is asking me how I’m feeling. They’re asking me, ‘How are those numbers?’” he said.

The result is that he must pass that focus on the bottom line through to his team without resistance, like fluid through a catheter: “So I’m just kind of flow-through-pee-bagging it.”

Some of the cost-savings job cuts are about reducing redundant functions in areas such as human resources, finance and administration, according to insiders who asked to remain anonymous because of company policies against speaking publicly about the layoffs. But the cuts also reached marketing, design, client service and product management roles, several sources say.

Heavy cuts were seen both in the suburban Boston and greater Kansas City areas, those sources note.

SS&C officials declined to comment on the breakdown of layoffs by geography or job role.

One consultant, who declined to be named because the person’s firm does business with SS&C, says the company’s history with acquisitions has been to focus on “cash cow” businesses with sticky revenue and then to expend more effort on the balance sheet than on improving the products.

“If I’m an asset manager and a heavy user of whatever system gets acquired by SS&C, I worry about this,” the person said.

But another employee who asked to remain anonymous noted that the firm has invested in “growth areas.”

Indeed, the shop has several fund accountant and fund administration positions open at its ALPS Fund Services office in Denver and operations roles in its brokerage services business in Minneapolis, according to postings on the company’s LinkedIn jobs page.

“If we have a job and we have work to do and somebody likes the pay and we like them, well great, that’s what it’s all about,” he said. “But if we don’t have any work, then we ought not be having a bunch of hangers.”

SS it’s ‘how are those numbers? he said

SS it’s ‘how are those numbers?’” he explained, adding

SS it’s ‘how are those numbers?’” he explained, adding, “Because when I come to these [investor conferences], no one is asking me how I’m feeling. They’re asking me, ‘How are those numbers?’” he said.

The result is that he must pass that focus on the bottom line through to his team without resistance, like fluid through a catheter: “So I’m just kind of flow-through-pee-bagging it.”

Some of the cost-savings job cuts are about reducing redundant functions in areas such as human resources, finance and administration, according to insiders who asked to remain anonymous because of company policies against speaking publicly about the layoffs. But the cuts also reached marketing, design, client service and product management roles, several sources say.

Heavy cuts were seen both in the suburban Boston and greater Kansas City areas, those sources note.

SS&C officials declined to comment on the breakdown of layoffs by geography or job role.

One consultant, who declined to be named because the person’s firm does business with SS&C, says the company’s history with acquisitions has been to focus on “cash cow” businesses with sticky revenue and then to expend more effort on the balance sheet than on improving the products.

“If I’m an asset manager and a heavy user of whatever system gets acquired by SS&C, I worry about this,” the person said.

But another employee who asked to remain anonymous noted that the firm has invested in “growth areas.”

Indeed, the shop has several fund accountant and fund administration positions open at its ALPS Fund Services office in Denver and operations roles in its brokerage services business in Minneapolis, according to postings on the company’s LinkedIn jobs page.

Does anyone have access to this to post a summary here?

It exists, I've seen a copy quickly. I thought that maybe someone had a copy. Clients are knowledgeable about it and are not pleased from what Intel I gathered.

Cannot find it. Did you just hear about it or see it?