#competition

How is Financials are gonna be impacted. I heard business was a negative margin business and VZ deciding to double down on a losing business.

Sounds like a winning strategy to me. For competitors I mean

Arista annual sales are close to 9~10B with approx 4500 employees, while Cisco annual sales are 56B with 86000 employees. To compare it - Arista is doing 20% of Cisco sales with 5% of employees. Conclusion is simple: Cisco has too many redundant employees.

Hearing there are org change meetings today. Surprised that no org changes have been announced when new CEO “officially” starts on Feb 1. Walmart is running laps around Target and they just announced a huge c-suite change last week. Target has a lot of work to do and they’re taking zero aggressive action to drive meaningful change to compete.

Employees made it over three years of constant layoffs most won’t make it to 2027. The company is going to get eaten alive by competition and the fact Dell doesn’t have relevant products for innovation.

https://www.mytvpanel.com/join-the-panel?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21155434714&gbraid=0AAAAABOVquI-V8ywtVZUYsMFvzt7Ow8qy

Since I had to get a new phone for my old concession line anyways I went ahead and switched to TMobile. I see why they are eating Verizon for breakfast. Everything is better! The customer service online and in store as well as the network. I had been overwhelmed with spam calls and missed calls before now no more! They even called me to make sure I understood all the processes. Dan was right they have surpassed Verizon in all areas. Do yourself a favor go ahead and switch those lines.

In the CFP final.. let’s talk about it.

JP claims that Cisco silicon in a head by 2 years vs. Broadcom and Nvidia. Any thoughts?

I just perused my LinkedIn and noticed yet another Chevron contact is moving on to Exxon. This has to be the third person in a month and I don't have a ton of contacts. I don't think I've seen anyone make the move to Exxon before from Chevron (I'm sure it happens), but we definitely had talent coming the other direction in the past. I guess our loss is their gain.

I’m constantly surprised that people just aren’t getting it with AI. This is not a differentiator…everyone is adopting it. Verizon needs to adopt and implement it just to survive and keep competitive. It’s about nothing more than reducing the cost base as much as possible

Honestly, Cisco runs on H-1B talent in a very real way—just like a lot of big tech—because it brings in people with deep, specific skills that are hard to find at the exact scale and speed the work demands. These aren’t random hires; a lot of them have strong engineering backgrounds and advanced degrees in areas like software, networking, security, and data. And yeah, it can make things feel more competitive for Americans, but that’s kind of the point: the world isn’t slowing down, and neither is the industry. If you don’t get the role you wanted, you can either sit around and blame the system, or you can level up and come back stronger. That’s the difference between a grown-up mindset and a baby mindset—Cisco (and the people who thrive there) reward the folks who adapt, learn, and keep pushing.

TL;DR: Kraft's constant cost-cutting and corporate mess gave room to competitors come in and take market share. I hope Nike executives read this

Other OP posted a terrible word vomit on the post, but I thought it was a good read. This feels uncomfortably close to home. The WSJ’s “ How Kraft Heinz Lost Its Lock on Mac and Cheese—and American Shoppers” is worth reading. Now they are in turnaround mode.

WSJ article:https://www.wsj.com/business/retail/kraft-heinz-mac-cheese-split-ceo-dccc9217?source:google.com

W/o paywall thelayoff post: https://www.thelayoff.com/t/1kdyrg024

Looking forward to the earnings call. Can we reach 600k customers loss in a year? Blows my mind that failed leadership is not held accountable. Maybe we can have another Kevin Hart commercial where VZ leadership laughs at the competition who are taking all of our customers.

The next round of the great Insight purge is among us.... Sharpen up those resumes.. While you are planning some NY revelry, someone else is plotting your demise. Lists submitted. The level of incompetence at this place is astounding. Services business is suffering greatly, fools only think that they can make this work. Can't compete against Deloitte or Accenture, CDW is in dismay. Don't do ERP or CRM implementations (hey KrustyBurger what's up with that? Thought that you were G Money Magic?), just playing around with AI like some kids at the school yard. Eclipsed by a bunch of other more nimble and spot on competitors. Does not matter how many ex-Cisco, ex-IBM'ers, ex-CAP fools are hired at 4x what you make. Let's anoint more CTO's and CISO's around this ghost town. Tumbling like tumble weed in the desert.

Meg, one of ours will be the next BP CEO. Shame she could have been the XOM CEO as she would be so much better than DWW or next in-line DA

Everything that Ford announce yesterday is basically they will copy China automotive companies products. Farley's team been in China and they finally realized what they need to do to survive. Seeing what China already produced and successful, Ford will bench mark China.

https://www.lightreading.com/5g/verizon-s-new-wireless-rates-spark-price-war-worries

Fixed Wireless Johnny Stinkey. Not everyone wants or needs Ferrari like Fiber Speeds. 9/10 are content with Fixed Wireless. Running Fiber all over the map is a Stinkey move. Johnny Stinkey is always a day late and a dollar short.

The year the Big Tech job market cracked

• Tech job seekers faced a tough market in 2025 amid layoffs and slow hiring.
• Cuts at Big Tech firms like Amazon and Microsoft helped fuel fierce competition.
• Business Insider asked tech job seekers about their challenges — and how some overcame them.

https://www.businessinsider.com/big-tech-job-market-hiring-cracked-layoffs-amazon-microsoft-2025-12

Now got project FID. should have been the springboard off the back of catcher to really propel DQ into competing with the big boys.
Now? This project will go to OneSubsea or BH and normal service has been resumed.

What a sad state of affairs.

OMG. Ford is testing Energy storage system that Tesla implemented in 2012. Ford said that no one in the industry is doing this, so it's a lie. Well, I hope this will help Ford to make some money. Let's see if it's going to burn down any houses.

What happened Paramount launched a $108.4 billion hostile bid for Warner Bros Discovery, outbidding Netflix's $72 billion offer. Paramount's bid includes $18 billion more in cash and aims to challenge Netflix's dominance.
Why it matters This bid could impact streaming services, movie theaters, and consumers by enhancing competition. It also raises antitrust concerns due to the consolidation of major television operators.


Key details


• When: Paramount's bid was launched on Monday, December 8.
• Who: Paramount Skydance (PSKY.O), Netflix (NFLX.O), Warner Bros Discovery (WBD.O).


• Numbers: Paramount's bid is $108.4 billion, including $18 billion more in cash than Netflix's offer. Paramount's offer is $30 per share, a 139% premium over Warner Bros Discovery's undisturbed stock price. Netflix's offer is $27.75 per share, mixing cash and stock.
• Financing: Paramount's offer includes financing from Affinity Partners (Jared Kushner's firm), Middle Eastern government-run investment funds, and the Ellison family.
• Regulatory concerns: Paramount's offer may face antitrust scrutiny, as it would create a major television operator and increase market share.


• Market reaction: Paramount shares up 7.7%, Warner Bros Discovery up 5%, Netflix shares down 4.5%.


• Next steps: Paramount will appeal to shareholders, regulators, and politicians to challenge Netflix's bid. The battle may become prolonged.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/transactional/paramount-makes-1084-billion-bid-warner-bros-discovery-2025-12-08/

GN&T did their usual shuffle of ADs and SDs after the RIF. For those that are unfamiliar, once a year or once every few years, they shuffle ADs and SDs from one department that they’re unqualified to lead to another where they’re typically even less qualified. It’s one of the many brilliant strategies that have allowed the competition to catch up or even surpass VZ

OpenAI won’t deliver $100B to Oracle, struggling itself. So no backlog no pay off of data center nor Stargate. The apps are being replaced by smaller SaaS solutions much cheaper. The AWS and Google connection ki-ls the rest multi cloud. AI theme is not financially valid and AI agents in Apps are just another feature. Nobody new buys apps because AI agents… that’s true.
Time will tell.

Very often I kept warning of competition eating our cake - and leadership was deaf, or they laughed, or they were very arrogant.

Friday - Hatchet man said we cannot relay on network - “no kidding, Sherlock”

It tool the board to kick 13k+ folks to wake up?

🤬

“Back at the All-In Summit, David Friedberg asked Musk: "Could you buy some carriers to acquire more spectrum? Maybe buy Verizon?"

Musk replied: "Not out of the question. I suppose that may happen."

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/spacex-trademark-filing-signals-starlink-mobile-may-soon-take-aim-att-verizon

How can it not? Underpaid lackeys for decades training others, and core development is all outsourced.

Competitors with the good taste, rare talent and skill to innovate will make the company more and more irrelevant in due time as a guarantee.

Salesforce Inc. gave an outlook for revenue in the current period that topped analysts’ estimates, suggesting the software company is persuading customers to buy its AI tools.

Revenue will be $11.1 billion to $11.2 billion in the period ending in January, the company said Wednesday in a statement. Analysts, on average, estimated $10.9 billion. Current remaining performance obligations, a measure of bookings, will increase about 15%, compared with analysts’ estimates of a 10% rise.

The revenue forecast includes 3 percentage points of growth from Informatica, a data integration software maker that Salesforce acquired last month in an $8 billion deal. The outlook for current remaining performance obligations includes 4 percentage points from Informatica.

The largest maker of software to track customer relationships is trying to push adoption of Agentforce — its AI tool that can complete tasks such as sales development and customer service without human supervision. Still, use has been largely limited to experimentation, in part due to customer confusion over pricing and disorganized data, wrote Derrick Wood, an analyst at TD Cowen, ahead of earnings.

Salesforce Chief Executive Officer Marc Benioff touted adoption of the AI tool, saying “our Agentforce and Data 360 products are the momentum drivers.”

Agentforce launched last year, and the company said it has closed more than 9,500 paid deals since then, an increase from 6,000 in the prior quarter.Annual recurring revenue for Salesforce’s division that includes AI-focused tools such as data organization and agents was $1.4 billion in the period ended Oct. 31, the company said.

The shares gained about 8% in extended trading after closing at $238.72 in New York. The stock has dropped 29% this year through Wednesday’s close as investors have grown concerned about AI disrupting incumbent application software makers.

In the fiscal third quarter, Salesforce reported that revenue increased 8.6% to $10.3 billion. Profit, excluding some items, was $3.25 per share. Analysts, on average, estimated adjusted earnings of $2.86 a share on $10.3 billion revenue, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The current remaining performance obligation was $29.4 billion, while analysts expected $29.1 billion.

Earnings, excluding some items, will be $3.02 a share to $3.04 a share in the period ending in January. Analysts, on average, estimated $3.03.

For the full year ending in January, adjusted operating margin will be about 34%, in line with estimates.

How do you guys do ratings at Wells Fargo? I work for a competitor that has a busy board here and I see you are posting a lot too. Just trying to compare things. Thank you.

Intel use “I am the only US semi” excuses to politically hammer/block other companies. It is politics and unfair competition.

For all those who mocked the once great competitor, is Xerox about to face its very own ‘Kodak Moment’ ?

Like it happen to many direct sellers in amazon before, initially Amazon will deliver significant sales increase to Nike and everyone in Nike will be happy but after few years amazon will demand more and more with higher leverage due to their sales volume until Nike realizes that they made mistake getting into bed with Amazon.

Anyone who has doubt about my claim, check Youtube regarding Amazon abuse.
It is true that Nike is big but that will not insulate Nike from Amazon abuse.
Even if Nike wants to back out from Amazon they will not able to do it since Nike's sale to Amazon has become too big and Nike have grown dependent on it. Like an addict become dependent on dr-g of his choice.
Later on Amazon will bring copy of Nike product with their own private brand and will rank them above Nike. Gradually ki-ling Nike product.
Amazon has done this few hundred thousand times to their seller so it is nothing new, big and small.
For example, 5 billion sale would be a big deal to Nike but to amazon it would mean nothing whose revenue is projected to be $500 billion.

This is open letter to EH and Nike management to think about regarding long term ramification


SAP SE was sued by supply-chain artificial intelligence firm o9 Solutions Inc., which claimed three of its former executives stole trade secrets for the European software giant.

In a complaint filed Tuesday in Dallas federal court, o9 claimed the stolen trade secrets concerned the design, implementation and testing of its supply-chain management software. The company, whose backers include KKR & Co. and General Atlantic, was valued in 2023 at $3.7 billion.

According to o9’s suit, longtime market leader SAP was losing customers to competitors in the business-planning software space due to its outdated platform. As a result, SAP allegedly launched an “aggressive campaign” to target o9’s trade secrets. Since the documents were reportedly stolen, o9 claims SAP has altered its software to closely mirror the startup’s offerings.

A representative for SAP declined to comment on the lawsuit.

Unless you’re dancing with the cobras, your job is in jeopardy.

Offshoring is cheap now. But you get what you pay for. No innovation. No advancements. No improvements. There is an overall lack of understanding of US culture, well being, and best business practices. Metlife investors will suffer as the co continues to lose ground to competitors.

I’m ready for a change!

https://www.autoextremist.com

"China much better than John Wayne USA" (or are they?)

“In China, you can buy a heavily discounted ‘used’ electric car that has never, in fact, been used. Chinese automakers, desperate to meet their sales targets in a bitterly competitive market, sell cars to dealerships, which register them as ‘sold,’ even though no actual customer has bought them. Dealers, stuck with officially sold cars, then offload them as ‘used,’ often at low prices."

@"the men and women who built this into a once great company."

Seriously, Verizon was NEVER a "Great" company. They never invented any groundbreaking technologies nor created any new markets nor set any significant business or technology trends.

Verizon (Bell Atlantic & Nynex) was spawned from AT&T (AKA, "Ma Bell") and grew primarily thru acquisitions (GTE, Alltel, MCI and potentially Frontier). Yes, they built out an excellent network but their real success come from leveraging sheer mass scale.

AT&T and IBM would be examples of truly great companies. Verizon is an "also ran" company who's day in the sun is fading because it ignored it's customers.

Honest question:
Why is Nike now following trends and not setting them as they used to?

I see many of the completion shoe styles replicated by Nike designers across running and basketball. Apparel as well.

what does CSCO have <2B??? I kind of feel sorry for CR and the gang.

https://www.fool.com/investing/2025/11/17/jensen-huang-just-delivered-incredible-news-for-nv/

Apparently AT&T is going to target laid off Verizon employees with switcher discounts. Absolute savages