Any hints, laddies an' lasses? How much gold did Goldman go through? How unclear are the Out of Focus projects already a year since the merger was announced? Was there any real due diligence or only doo-doo diligence? Enquiring minds want to know! Will the board finally get bored of Double D's double talk? Riddle me this Batman, will DD double down on CPI to double distract the analysts like Machiavellian tweets in the middle of the night? How stunned, angry, betrayed will the anal-cysts pretend to be? "Fool me three times and let's just all admit that I'm a s---er for a good looking dude with an expensive toupee and a kilt!"
16 replies (most recent on top)
Yeah, thank God. We might have picked quality people who kept the company afloat, that wouldn't do. We need hubris and narcissism and magazine coverboys. GO LOSERS!
thank God you id--ts aren't running MDR
I wanna see Porky anointed with oil. Will that big phallic looking head veins n all look more like a lubed up weiner?
Won't be a investment community if MDR goes under, only Goldman and the banks. Analysts which still like him now will be on the street in a month.
A year ago Mngt thought CBI could be CPIed and cost contrlloed back to $$. No! focus projects have execution problems. We can't just cut costs, there are contracts and guaranties and penalties! And they were underbid?! How long did it take you to figure that out?!! Do you know what you are doing, what you got yourselfs into?
MDR paid 4b$ for CBI people and paper. know what? Cbi people hate it here as much as the legacy MDR people. They are walking & that 4$b in goodwill is going down the draining. And lots of people who are still here get stayon bonuses to keep them Mngt needs to fire their HR head.
Cfo is good at cutting costs? Well I hope so! Any accountant can look at numbers and say "don't pay the bills, fire these Americans , why do they think they deserve a decent standard of living?" That's not what we need. We need someone who knows onshoer EPC. Cfo is not the right choice. Goldman and the bankruptcy court will see that
CFO is the anointed one. Has lead the charge on cost reductions since he came on board. Plus investment community likes him.
Yeah, I wonder why results are coming out so late. Could be some big news is holding things up. More charges and bankruptcy? Tank and pipes sale? DD fired? Could be lots of things. But it will probably leak out sooner rather than later so look at the stock price to see if its good or bad.
Guess what day it is! Guess what, day, it, is!
But we get to keep our beloved BJF?
Prediction. Dickless will be ousted before 2/25. Somebody's head needs to role and it might as well be the guy whos at fault. Timed to convince the NYSE that the board is doing it's job. COO will be interim CEO. Board doesn't like him but who else? What then? Prediction. Goldman steps in and fights it out with the banks. Goldman CEO appointed. Maybe bankruptcy to cauterize Focus Projects. But banks won't walk away emptyhanded. And Goldman will be on the defensive. And then?
Prediction. Lummus and tank business sold. Banks debt paid off. Goldman restructures what's left. Massive layoffs. Then? PM celebrates with the best champagne money can buy.
The Calpine/York project looks pretty close to completion. Freeport is in better shape with Zachary. So it really comes down to Cameron and getting that first train out of the way without any more losses. We don't have the cash to take another big hit. Goldman bought stock in December and now owns 7.5% of the company. Maybe they know something? I do know they're greedy!
Pigs get fat, Hogs get slaughtered. I am so glad I am out of all this corporate America c-ap.
We don't need billion dollar projects. Too much competition, too much lead time, too much risk, too much "focus". Profitability starts by FOCUSING on the details on every project. Most of our projects are really, really sloppy. Not meeting profitability targets, losing money often. "Let's throw some sh-- at the side of a barn and see if we can make some money!" You can't. You don't understand the business. You don't control costs. You hide losses. Winning takes planning, attention, control and discipline. A trained integrated team. Our big Saudi profits hide the abysmal performance on most other jobs. We should keep SPS and fabrication and reap steady $$ on well run jobs. But we are selling them because we want the big jobs. So they say. The big jobs like the focus projects. Those are what we're pointing at and saying "That's my idea of a great company"?! There are WAY MORE focus projects out there at other companies than you might think. You shouldn't be driving an 18 wheeler when you can't even ride a bike. The fact that we bought CB&I's problems shows that we don't understand the billion $ projects, how they go wrong and how to fix them. But now we're selling our best businesses and betting the farm on the 18 wheeler we can't drive without a lot of collateral damage. And how do we think we're going to turn this ship around? Fire, force out and mistreat your best and most experienced employees, hire up cheaper and less experienced workers, cut pay, cut benefits, cut costs.
And most important pay executive bonuses.
Bankruptcy proceedings will spotlight on anything you did to accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative. Don't sacrifice your career so these fools can get a bigger bonus. Do what's right.
Top management has a layer of insulation to protect them when stuff starts hitting the fan in a few weeks. It won't just be the rank and file getting CPI'd, someone's got to take the blame for what's coming. But that's why they make the big bucks right?
This slo-mo trainwreck is gonna be a B- school case study someday. My next book will be the insider's view.
Some men just want to watch the world burn.