#speculation

Everything is a guessing game at this point.

Customer service and store channels to get a complete overhaul with new leaders and possibly a lot less of them to flatten our business?

Pull back of vendor customer service? By how much?

Work visas to be cancelled?

200 stores will be going to indirect with less support. More to follow?

Value organization to be drastically trimmed and a single brand for all prepay? Total to be sold off?

VSP offered for anyone who wants it?

We will all know soon. Until then. Do your job well. Get your end of year performance documents ready. Stay focused.

I saw an armed policeman on the upper floor of the cube. I noticed him still there couple of hours later. I asked some people in my class about what he could be doing there.
One guy said the policeman stops every person that goes to the elevator and checks if there name is on a list.
There was obviously such an important meeting at the top level of the cube that employees were not allowed on the same floor as the meeting.

What are they discussing such that an armed guard is required to keep employees off that whole floor?

is it the calm bofeore a coming storm? Selfie-king just posted about some org changes. Is that the beginning of a trickle down effect?

We all know more layoffs are coming, it's the new norm. Any thoughts on what could be targeted next?

I see that there are planned layoffs in March and June, although I wonder if the source is one post on blind which might or might not be true. Either way it would help to evaluate what % is laid off? Cali laid of 175/2300 which is close to 10% budget as Cali is expensive? Post your % numbers based on anecdotal evidence

Will Repsol decision to merge with an unreputable company like APA Apache be a good or bad decision? Will it create or destroy jobs?

Adobe has chosen not to give an FSA lump sum at the start of 2026. Something they've done since I started in 2011. Rather, they are going to spread it out over January to October. That significant change, among many other things I'm seeing around AI, suggests to me that they are aligning corp expenditures around planned mass layoffs at some point in 2026.

My interpretation of the articles going around is that this is affecting “management” employees meaning HQ. Retail is its own thing and they are not categorized the same in the financials.

Retail moving to indirect and/or closing down will be its own thing.

What is the over/under Of Verizon getting out of the PS business all together just shifting all focus to wireless and broadband?

Apache may get 19 billion dollars of assets for a mere handshake 🤝 they only have $350mm cash…and stock is a dumpster fire. How will this affect employees and jobs?

Let’s convince MW to intervene

Any insight from the water cooler?

Will this breath life into APA?

Which top level public executives are likely to be pushed into retirement soon, rather than rank and file employees?

Now, I know this is all speculative but I wanted to see what people think if a layoff is coming. If yes, how big is it - 10%, 15%, 20%. I've heard different things in the office, people are freaked out and talking but it's all just rumors so far. Also, which groups will be affected and locations. Good luck all.

Why are partners like Victra hiring a bunch of former Verizon people?

Are they getting ready to take over more than just retail stores?

Will they also be opening their own contact centers to manage the customers they activate and support?

All interesting potential moves that show you the possible work being done and fast.

I saw this today via a Google alert.

"Market attention recently turned to ongoing reports about DXC exploring strategic alternatives. Some analysts have noted renewed takeover interest from private equity groups, which likely stirred price volatility and new speculation about its true value."

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/investors-reassess-dxc-technology-takeover-050450354.html

Today we have a “there’s power in partnership firmwide broadcast.”

What do we think this will be about?

Best guesses and snarky speculation will be accepted

I’ve been looking on this site for the past week and what I have gathered is nobody actually knows anything. Only thing I have seen is a lot of speculation. If you actually know something bring the proof. Also, does anybody think that maybe the acquisition of Frontier and once the acquisition goes through that will be the actual layoffs? Wouldn’t they just layoff the people that worked for Frontier if the jobs are already taken at Verizon? From what I’ve read Verizon will layoff 4,000-5,000+ people from Frontier once the acquisition is completed. I may be wrong but this makes sense.

What is everyone hearing?

This is pure speculation but with the earnings call AND CX Summit coming up, I would assume now's the time to announce the new CEO, right?

Sampath cancelled the VCG All hands meeting for next week. Is he on the way out?

There’s been no official communication. Nothing in the media either. We’re completely stumbling in the dark. Why? Do they want to make this even more tense than it already is? Our livelihoods are on the line.

Heard from a few peers that Monday 11/03 will be announcement for another staff reduction this year.

where’s the genius posting weekly that AML is about to have layoffs - after AGAIN - for the 12 time in a row - not having layoffs. “Mr. Shut Up” should be the only reply to that person who keeps posting their propaganda. Additionally, this is the 8th layoff I’ve posted on here - accurately.

Seems to me going private would allow us to accelerate towards goals.

Stifel Chairman and Chief Executive Ronald Kruszewski on Wednesday sent a memo to the company’s employees, including 2,300 advisors, seeking to counter rising speculation that he could sell the 135-year-old firm.

“Let me be clear. Stifel is not being sold to Raymond James or to anyone else,” Kruszewski wrote in the memo, which referred to a report in industry publication WealthManagement.com.

The article had linked Stifel to a potential deal with regional rival Raymond James Financial. The publication cited anonymous sources who said that legal pressure and rising costs tied to barred Miami broker Chuck Roberts could put pressure on St​​ifel to sell and that Raymond James was discussed as a “likely buyer.”

Kruszewski called the report “ridiculous and misleading” and compared it to a “White House leak.”

“I’m just surprised Stifel isn’t being linked to Russian collusion,” Kruszewski wrote in the memo, titled “Setting the Record Straight (With a Smile).”

A Stifel spokesperson confirmed the memo but declined further comment.

Raymond James did not return requests for comment. Wednesday’s article noted that, “[I]t is unclear how formal the talks are between the firms or if an agreement is imminent.”

Raymond James trades at a market capitalization of around $31 billion compared to Stifel’s $12 billion. The St. Petersburg, Florida-based firm has around 8,900 brokers.

“I know the folks at Raymond James,” wrote Kruszewski, who has led Stifel since 1997. “They’re a nice company, but let’s be honest, I believe Stifel is number one.”

The question of a sale surfaced last week on Stifel’s third quarter earnings call during which BMO Capital Markets analyst Brennan Hawken asked about whether the company was for sale and noted that, “Many investors believe that [it] can make for a good target.”

Kruszewski, 67, responded that there was “no need” to sell the company and that questions seem to be driven by concerns about whether he could run out of energy and want to sell.

“That ain’t the case here,” Kruszewski said on the call. “I’m not looking to do anything.”

A source close to the company said that Kruszewski was concerned following the earnings call that plans to sell its non-core independent brokerage business had been conflated with an intention to sell the company.

Stifel on Monday announced it had agreed to sell its $9 billion-asset independent contractor unit to Equitable Advisors, confirming a report earlier this month.

Common Wealth said the same thing and they sold like 4 months later. I definatley think they are selling now.

In the "AI Ponzi Flywheel" circulates money in a self-reinforcing loop which Cisco is a part of. This artificially inflates valuations without any broad external revenue

First, Nvidia and AMD inject low-cost financing directly into OpenAI (like Nvidia's $100 billion commitment and AMD's warrants for cheap stock)

this is for infrastructure purchases.

OpenAI then deploys these funds to acquire cloud compute from Oracle and CoreWeave (Nvidia-backed), along with networking equipment from Cisco via the Stargate UAE project.

Then, Oracle and CoreWeave reinvest OpenAI's payments to procure more Nvidia and AMD GPUs, expanding their capacity, while Microsoft amplifies the cycle through equity stakes and Azure integrations. Hype-fueled stock surges enable warrant exercises or stake sales, recycling profits back into further financing rounds. This internal churn sustains $20 trillion market caps and reported growth, like Nvidia's $300-500 billion projections and $64 billion cash flow, but hinges on perpetual inflows amid low data center utilization (60-90%) and ongoing losses ($10 billion annually for OpenAI)

This is a more fragile system than dot-com and the housing bubble combined. A single disruption could evaporate trillions in value.

the actual utility from AI is minimal. "agentic AI", "vibe coding" are losers and cause more problems than they solve.

AI is just a summarization machine that also makes it easy to pump out horrifcally tasteless videos for the masses

It'd be an interesting development.

How soon will Srini follow the lead of his new buddy at Amazon?

https://www.geekwire.com/2025/amazon-reportedly-set-to-lay-off-30000-corporate-employees-in-massive-workforce-cut/

Lots of speculation lately. Haven’t heard sh-t

Any rumors on buyers for PSS? Panasonic might make sense given their partnership earlier this year.

How are we doing?
Who's at the helm?
Are we making $$$?
Do they treat the worker better?

The Q3 call will be a disaster as most quarterly calls have been since i left. Capt Clown will then go on about re-invention and how 'the street' is believing in the re-invention. LOL
Friend who is still there told me that Xerox isn't paying any bills until the new year. Probably won't have cash for payroll. Rest assured the SLT will get their bonuses and probably a raise. Congratulations to Steve, Louie, Miranda and all involved, you can celebrate running an ICON into the ground.

Big money is at stake. Seasoned pro is required.

Take a look at the FI price history for all years. If you know FI (FISV), you would know that FI has always been a slow and steady stock with 8 splits starting in 1991 and the last being in 2018.

Fiserv was the slow, ever increasing, dependable stock with splits that realized compounding value. It was a great stock to own inside or outside the company.

Look at the odd outlier behavior starting in 2019. It's almost like the stock was severely manipulated because it does not follow the historical trend. Remember, the stock price graph doesn't lie. Even if you don't believe it was manipulated, you can see the fingerprints of something other than a normal Fiserv at least in historical terms.

Some important quotes we can ponder to assess the caliber of our past leader:

"What the heck’s the commissioner of Social Security? What am I going to do?”

“You know, one of my great skills, I’m one of the great Googlers on the East Coast," he said. "Put that as the headline for the post: ‘great Googler-in-chief, chief-in-Googler,’ or whatever."

Yes, there will be cuts, but I don’t think it will be as bad as everyone expects. This feels like one of those situations where the story keeps growing the more it is repeated, while the truth is probably closer to where it started.

Proficio sounds like the old ricoh line aka Aficio... These must be relabeled ricoh production boxes? Launch date March 2026...Love the optimism.

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20251022000698/en/Xerox-Introduces-Two-New-Digital-Presses-to-Production-Ecosystem-at-PRINTING-United

The current total XRX Goodwill is only $1.91 BN, but.... Lexmark has goodwill as well. With a total market cap of less than 1/3 of the Goodwill, you have to wonder if they have ANY Goodwill value left. They wrote down 1BN a yer ago when the stock was at $9, now it's $3. I was thinking before the Q3 loss would be 1BN, but now I'm thinking closer to $2 BN.

First of all, I agree that slack org chart is buggy. But usually it’s randomly affecting anyone, not showing patterns like what we observed recently

If the slack org chart sudden change means anything, i don’t think it’s comprehensive. Not everybody who will be laid off were shown as orphaned. But people who were orphaned may have some changes coming to them as something changed in AD that triggered some changes in okta that somehow, maybe unintentionally, got reflected in slack org. This change may mean the person is changing manager/group or potentially will get laid off.

I suspect that whatever changes that they were doing in Slack were interrupted by the commotion in the rumor site, and the activities stop. That maybe a reason that these changes were not comprehensive.

"Companies post ghost jobs to build large applicant pools for future needs, create an image of growth to boost INVESTOR or employee morale, or maintain visibility and engagement on job boards to game algorithms. Other reasons include budget constraints, a difficulty in filling highly specialized roles, or automatic copying of listings by job boards. "