DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Meta's big job cuts aren't about the tricky economy or rising inflation. They're about Mark Zuckerberg's mistakes.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Asia Martin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said it was economic changes that led to over 21,000 in total being laid off. Investors have long said that Zuckerberg's own decisions and mistakes led to this point. Zuckerberg has bet his company's future on the metaverse, including its expensive bets on virtual reality goggles via its Reality Labs unit. Meta's stock has moved up after every layoff announcement, a sign that investors liked the announcements. Investors had a positive response on Wednesday as Meta's stock rose 6% again off the news of more layoffs.

At the Fontainebleau hotel, Credit Suisse bankers were puzzled by the announcements, and concerned about their jobs being on the line, said the executive, who declined to be named. In response to questions from Reuters for this article, a spokesperson for Credit Suisse in London said: "We never comment on rumours or speculation." 'A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE'Even after Credit Suisse stopped financing hedge funds following the Archegos implosion in March 2021, the equities business remained a key part of its investment bank revenue. One option Credit Suisse is considering is to move its equities research to CSFB, Reuters reported. Slimming down the equities business would draw a further line under Credit Suisse's investment bank ambitions.

☆ How Salesforce Is Striving to Make Its Sales Force More Efficient
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Tom Dotan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Salesforce Inc., after years of rapid revenue pursuit and spending, is shifting its focus to increasing profit by doing more with less. The company’s chief operating officer and president, Brian Millham , one of the people tasked with getting the margins up, said efficiency is now the key. The company is slimming teams, integrating companies it has acquired and relying more on online portals and self-serve tools to bring on new customers.

From committing to dollar-cost averaging to slimming down high-interest debt, these steps can help keep you on track. If you're unsure how to move to the next level with your money, check out these ideas to help you reach your new financial goals. Set yourself up for successSetting strong financial goals upfront can kickstart your journey to success. Create small habits that add upRecurring tasks and scheduled automations help ensure your finances keep working smoothly. Whittle away debt that's holding you backNot all debt is created equal, according to Empower financial professionals.

☆ M&G would be a tricky hop for kangaroo raider
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Neil Unmack | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

LONDON, March 2 (Reuters Breakingviews) - M&G (MNG.L) would be a tricky hop for Macquarie (MQG.AX). The $48 billion Australian financial powerhouse may bid for the $6 billion UK insurer. The appeal is likely to be in the fund management group. Macquarie’s own asset management arm accounted for over 30% of net profit in the first half of its current financial year. Follow @Unmack1 on TwitterCONTEXT NEWSAustralian banking group Macquarie is considering a bid for UK insurance and asset management group M&G, Sky News reported on March 1.

☆ Hong Kong’s office landlords face a tough rebound
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-01 | by ( Thomas Shum | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

HONG KONG, March 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Hong Kong offices are emptier than in other Asian financial centres. Singapore and Tokyo boast rates well under half of Hong Kong’s level, and figures there are either improving or roughly unchanged. Last year, mainland-based companies accounted for less than 6% of all leases in Hong Kong’s key Central business district, from nearly 30% in 2019. Hong Kong’s economy shrunk for three of the last four years, and its population is slimming too. However, the plan to reduce its office footprint may not apply to Hong Kong, a person familiar with the situation told Breakingviews.

[1/3] Ben & Jerry's, a brand of Unilever, is seen on display in a store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 24, 2022. Nestle said cutting products saved 1 billion Swiss francs last year ($1.06 billion), while Unilever said the practice saved $2 billion. Food makers tend to cull products without much fanfare. At the consumer products conference they highlighted new offerings, many of them increasingly popular handheld foods that people can eat while scrolling on phones. "You'd be shocked by the loyalty and personal connections people have to food products," he said.

[1/3] Ben & Jerry's, a brand of Unilever, is seen on display in a store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., March 24, 2022. Eliminating less popular products is part of a "decomplexity program" underway at Kraft Heinz, its executives said at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference this week. Nestle said cutting products saved 1 billion Swiss francs last year ($1.06 billion), while Unilever said the practice saved $2 billion. At the consumer products conference they highlighted new offerings, many of them increasingly popular handheld foods that people can eat while scrolling on phones. "You'd be shocked by the loyalty and personal connections people have to food products," he said.

☆ Philadelphia Fed manufacturing gauge plunges unexpectedly
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 16 (Reuters) - Manufacturing activity in the Mid-Atlantic region dropped off sharply and unexpectedly in February, and goods producers reported input cost increases accelerated for the first time in 10 months while their own price increases slowed dramatically, signaling margin pressures were building. The Philadelphia Federal Reserve's monthly manufacturing index plunged to -24.3 this month from -8.9 in January, belying expectations among economists for a third straight monthly improvement. Moreover, firms expect smaller price increases for consumers in the next 12 months than they did in November. In a special question, firms said they expect to impose 4.5% price increases for their own products in the year ahead, down from 4.8% when asked the same question in November and also lower than the 7.0% price increases they'd realized over the last year. Wage increases were also expected to be lower at 4.8% in the year ahead, down from 5.0% in the November survey.

Lawrence Elbaum, co-head of law firm Vinson & Elkins' shareholder activism practice, said investors were looking for value-boosting strategies that do not require much funding in a difficult market. Deka Investment, which has around 367 billion euros ($392 billion) in assets under management and holds stakes in most major German corporations, has repeatedly called out German companies for structural weaknesses. Germany's blue-chip DAX 30 index (.GDAXI) put in the worst performance of any major European stock market in the past year, rising just 2%. Joe Kaeser, supervisory board chairman of Siemens Energy (ENR1n.DE), said the United States was much more advanced, and also more successful, in the field of shareholder activism. As CEO of conglomerate Siemens AG from 2013 until 2021, he engineered one of Germany's most successful corporate break-ups, separately listing Siemens Energy and Siemens Healthineers (SHLG.DE) and merging Siemens's wind unit with Spain's Gamesa.

☆ Exclusive: Goldman Sachs to cut asset management investments that weighed on earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Saeed Azhar | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

NEW YORK, Jan 23 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc's (GS.N) asset management arm will significantly reduce the $59 billion of alternative investments that weighed on the bank's earnings, an executive told Reuters. "It's not going to zero because we will continue to invest in and alongside funds, as opposed to individual deals on the balance sheet." The positions included $15 billion in equity investments, $19 billion in loans and $12 billion in debt securities, alongside other investments. If the environment improves for asset sales, Salisbury said he expected to see "a faster decline in the legacy balance sheet investments." Goldman Sachs' asset management arm closed a $15.2 billion fund earlier this month to make junior debt investments in private equity-backed businesses.

☆ Goldman Sachs to cut asset management investments that weighed on earnings
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Goldman Sachs Group Inc's asset management arm will significantly reduce the $59 billion of alternative investments that weighed on the bank's earnings, an executive told Reuters. "It's not going to zero because we will continue to invest in and alongside funds, as opposed to individual deals on the balance sheet." The positions included $15 billion in equity investments, $19 billion in loans and $12 billion in debt securities, alongside other investments. If the environment improves for asset sales, Salisbury said he expected to see "a faster decline in the legacy balance sheet investments." Goldman Sachs' asset management arm closed a $15.2 billion fund earlier this month to make junior debt investments in private equity-backed businesses.

☆ Novartis' CEO is charging ahead in cutting tens of thousands of workers to transform the $220 billion pharma giant
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Novartis is laying off thousands of workers, CEO Vasant Narasimhan told Insider. Through layoffs and spinoffs, the Swiss giant expects to trim its headcount by about 30% by 2024. SAN FRANCISCO — Thousands of layoffs are "happening now," Vasant Narasimhan, the CEO of Novartis, told Insider, as he hopes the $220 billion Swiss giant is entering the final steps of becoming a smaller, more-focused drug company. The Swiss giant had about 125,000 full-time employees at the time, and it has about 108,000 workers today. The restructuring will save Novartis about $1.5 billion annually, Narasimhan said during his Monday presentation at the JPMorgan conference.

☆ Wells Fargo, once the No. 1 player in mortgages, is stepping back from the housing market
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Hugh Son | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

watch nowWells Fargo is stepping back from the multi-trillion dollar market for U.S. mortgages amid regulatory pressure and the impact of higher interest rates. It's the latest, and perhaps most significant, strategic shift that CEO Charlie Scharf has undertaken since joining Wells Fargo in late 2019. Following those once-huge mortgage players in slimming down their operations has implications for the U.S. mortgage market. Today, Wells Fargo is the third biggest mortgage lender after Rocket and United Wholesale Mortgage. Wells Fargo employees have speculated for months about changes coming after Scharf telegraphed his intentions several times in the past year.

LONDON/NEW YORK, Dec 22 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Private credit has grown into a $1.3 trillion mountain over the last decade. When banks stopped lending to private equity firms in 2022, private credit firms stayed active. High-yield loans issued by banks and then sold on to investors in the market fell 80% in the first nine months of 2022, according to Fitch Ratings. Specialist private lenders, however, had some $390 billion of spare capital to spend, according to Preqin data. Investors who funded private lenders may be in for a shock.

☆ What’s gone wrong at Beyond Meat
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Danielle Wiener-Bronner | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

And fierce competition is squeezing sales, including in frozen, plant-based chicken, a category that is growing while refrigerated plant-based meat sales falter. “We believe that healthy competition within plant-based meat is a good thing as it brings investment in marketing to the category,” said Brown during the November analyst call. It’s true that the plant-based meat pie is smaller these days. Ground plant-based meat fell about 19%, and patties were down 30% in that period. It launched a retooled version, Beyond Chicken Tenders, in stores in 2021, and has built its plant-based chicken portfolio since then.

☆ The tech sector isn't going to be a leader next year, says Truist's Keith Lerner
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe tech sector isn't going to be a leader next year, says Truist's Keith LernerJPMorgan’s Gabriela Santos and Truist Wealth’s Keith Lerner join 'Closing Bell: Overtime' to discuss Brad Gerstner's comments on the Fed and rates. They also discuss slimming down the tech sector.

☆ Google must take 'more drastic actions' like layoffs because not enough employees will leave on their own, analyst says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-16 | by ( Tom Dotan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Google's headcount grew much faster than its revenue during the third quarter. Google is now the last major holdout among tech giants to avoid laying off employees amid an economic slowdown. And while the company takes pride in the fact that it's never suffered mass layoffs in its history, there may be no other way out for Google, one analyst says. "Google is likely going to find it difficult to reduce headcount growth below revenue growth without more drastic actions," Shmulik wrote. In the last quarter Google hired around 12,000 new employees, making it 24% larger than it was during the quarter last year.

☆ CNN CEO Chris Licht details layoff plans at all-hands company meeting
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Claire Atkinson | Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

CNN CEO Chris Licht detailed layoff plans to staff amid tough conditions for parent Warner Bros Discovery. CNN Worldwide Chairman and CEO Chris Licht attempted to assert his authority at an all-hands meeting with staff Tuesday morning about the coming layoffs and his plans for the news organization. Licht took some fire at the all-hands over his previous assertions in June that there would be no major layoffs. He told staff there will be a wider reorganization of newgathering staff. Licht also said there would be no layoffs at CNN Digital, although some newsgathering staff are part of CNN Digital.

☆ Meta is reportedly putting some workers onto a '30-day list' that gives them a month to find a new role at the company — or leave
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta reportedly puts some workers on a "30-day list" that leaves them a month to find a new role at the company. In July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company plans to shrink several teams over the next year. Many teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company," Zuckerberg said during the company's quarterly earnings call in July. Last week, the tech company gave dozens of employees a 90-day window to find a new role or leave Google, the publication reported, citing sources familiar with the issue. Have you experienced the 30-day list?

Search resuls for: "slimming"

20 mentions found