#business

There is no low that is low enough for these snakes

Interesting that adidas is getting out of outdoor when Nike seems to be tripling down on ACG.. anyone know why?

The transaction involved the acquisition of the West End Center office complex, which consists of two buildings.

https://traded.co/deals/north-carolina/office/sale/809-west-4-1-2-st-winston-sale/

Sony Group Corp. announced the closure of Bluepoint Games. The Austin-based studio was a PlayStation Studios subsidiary. Approximately 70 workers will lose their jobs next month. This decision followed a business review and new business strategies. Bluepoint Games was known for remaking classic video games.

https://www.technetbooks.com/2026/02/bluepoint-games-sony-closure-leads-to.html

I don't see any value add for Business analyst, scrum masters in tech groups. Specially in AI era, these positions are redundant and can be completely eliminated.

So did we pay ichan out first so he got a great price so we could then effectively dismantle 2 business down to bits they could sell off.

Has anyone in the O'Fallon location been impacted? If so, what business areas?

This is a genuine question, I am not trolling.
Nothing I've heard so far makes any business sense.

He has done such a great job at Ford, he has been anointed into the BoD at McDonalds.

The guy is a "1" performer.

BILLIONS and BILLIONS of losses in the last few years with this EV bullsh-t and what? Here at Ford, its nothing but applause.

That’s according to the release. It feels like a never ending losing streak.

Does anyone else find the Business and Distribution teams keep losses to themselves and only announce client wins… however small, if at all.

Another large loss in my country… I found out from around the industry and not from anyone in the company.

"Some leaders and pioneers in AI say that artificial intelligence will advance far enough to replace entire workforces."

https://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-ai-ceo-mustafa-suleyman-white-collar-tasks-automation-prediction-2026-2

No wonder things aren’t looking up for us. Numerous customer complaints about how difficult we are to work with = lost accounts!

I’m curious about these numbers that are shared during the analyst meetings etc. Is there any breakbown of the number or percentages,of existing clients moving to the cloud, and net new clients signing contracts? That would really provide a health check. Is SAP merely cannibalizing the client base, or is there a reasonable amount of net new clients coming in?

Baker McKenzie announced plans to cut approximately 700 business services staff. The firm cited artificial intelligence as a reason for these reductions. The article questions if AI is truly the cause or an excuse. AI is not directly replacing Biglaw lawyers internally. Client use of AI and smaller firms leveraging it may reduce Biglaw's need for lawyers.

https://abovethelaw.com/2026/02/baker-mckenzie-blamed-ai-for-massive-layoff-but-the-problem-is-much-more-complicated/

You got your PEP+, you got your DNA, you got your Clover, bo-m, you got a payments company.

Phillips 66 increasingly feels like four different companies trying to share one identity.

Refining behaves like a cyclical market business.

Midstream behaves like long-cycle infrastructure.

Chemicals operates on global petrochemical timelines.

Commercial trading introduces short-term risk and volatility.

Each of these businesses has its own logic. The problem is that they do not share the same operating tempo, capital profile, or investor base.

And yet management continues to insist that integration creates advantage.

The evidence suggests the opposite.

Refining volatility still dominates results. Chemicals absorbs capital just as margins weaken. Midstream demands steady reinvestment as assets age. Trading amplifies swings rather than smoothing them. Instead of offsetting one another, the segments often pull the company in conflicting directions.

This is not an execution issue alone — it is a structural one.

When leadership attention is divided across fundamentally different business models, accountability blurs. Each segment can point to another when performance falls short:
• Refining blames markets.
• Trading points to volatility.
• Midstream cites long-cycle economics.
• Chemicals asks for patience.

The result is a company where no single leader owns the full economic outcome, and shareholders are left holding a portfolio they didn’t explicitly choose.

Investors don’t need Phillips 66 to assemble this mix for them. They can buy refiners, midstream operators, or chemical producers directly. Portfolio theory says diversification only creates value when it reduces risk or increases returns. At Phillips 66, it increasingly looks like diversification is doing neither.

That is why the breakup conversation keeps resurfacing — not as an activist slogan, but as a rational response to structural tension.

Separating refining from infrastructure.

Allowing chemicals to find a more natural owner.

Letting midstream operate without being anchored to refining cycles.

These are not radical ideas. They are acknowledgments that different businesses require different leadership focus and different shareholder bases.

Right now, Phillips 66 feels less like an integrated platform and more like a collection of assets waiting for clarity.

The company doesn’t suffer from a lack of strategy.

It suffers from too many strategies competing at once.

Until leadership chooses focus over breadth, the conglomerate discount will remain — not because investors misunderstand the story, but because they understand it all too well.

Enjoy.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/massive-layoffs-if-paramount-buys-warner-bros-says-netflix-1236500848/

PE will cash out and sell all real estate and rake in as much profit as they can.

Snake oil salesmen got caught!

https://apple.news/AB3GL7V95R7qXMGPLPTdnqw

https://www.freep.com/story/money/business/michigan/2026/02/02/fifth-third-finalizes-purchase-of-comerica/88474021007/

Fifth Third Bancorp finalized its purchase of Comerica Bank. The deal officially closed on Monday, February 2.

Rebranding of Comerica branches to Fifth Third will begin in September.

This all-stock deal was valued at $12.3 billion.

The Federal Reserve and shareholders approved the deal last month.

https://about.att.com/aboutus/pressrelease/2026/att-lumen-deal-close.html

Lumen Completes Sale of Consumer Fiber-to-the-Home Business to AT&T

More info online

The reserves replacement discussion on the earnings investor presentation makes no sense at all. It shows 10 year increases but says RRR was 95%.

Anyhow, last year we really only added reserves from Hess. Otherwise, we are a shrinking business.

I just got my buainess update email.
I was waiting for it long time.
Cheers!!

Poor businesses.

I'm so over corporate life. The thought of dealing with another reorg or layoff cycle makes me want to just walk out. I'm seriously thinking about using my skills to start a small business. It'd be crazy hard, but at least I'd be my own boss and in control of the chaos.

Hi, is anyone impacted in evernorth or accredo ? Particularly Business Analyst title? Is this layoff for fulltime or contractors?

So many threads out there.. lets just track here..

I have not received any email so far. -EviCore, Business analytics

Made it in the office in an Icy region I'd rather not disclose. A big thank you to the local maintenance that cleared every bit of snow & ice from our parking lot, walkways, and sidewalks. You all are awesome. Thank you on this required Business as usual day.

Does anyone believe this business can recover, or has years of ineffective leadership taken it down too far. Rumors are that this business is next on the spin-off list after MMS.

Please continue working hard every day business as usual bringing in revenue to help support upper level retired management and perhaps one day you too shall travel first class, enjoy fine dinning, five star accommodations, fun toys and cosmetics. Thank you for your service.

Few of us were laid off today. Given 2 weeks notice and severance.

Phillips 66 presents itself as an integrated downstream energy company—one designed to balance cycles, allocate capital across segments, and deliver more durable returns than simpler peers. On paper, that strategy is sensible. The challenge is that the benefits of integration remain difficult to see in either operating results or market valuation.

Under Mark Lashier, integration is frequently cited as a core advantage. But integration is not defined by asset mix or corporate structure. It is defined by whether complexity earns its keep.

So far, the evidence is mixed at best.

If integration were working as intended, it would show up in at least one of three ways:

1) Meaningfully lower earnings volatility than pure-play refiners

2) Superior capital efficiency driven by portfolio-level optimization

3) Consistently stronger shareholder returns than simpler competitors

Phillips 66 has not reliably delivered any of the three.

Refining continues to dominate quarterly performance and investor sentiment. Volatility in one segment regularly overwhelms stability elsewhere in the portfolio. The diversification benefit that is central to the integration story often feels theoretical rather than observable. When one business sets the tone for the entire enterprise, the portfolio is diversified in name only.

This is not an asset-quality issue. Phillips 66 owns strong positions across refining, midstream, and chemicals. Nor is it an employee issue—teams across the company execute in difficult, cyclical markets. The problem is structural: complexity has not translated into resilience or premium valuation.

Markets tend to be blunt about this. Companies that combine multiple businesses without producing clear cross-segment advantages are typically valued at a discount, not because investors misunderstand them, but because the burden of complexity outweighs the benefits. Phillips 66 continues to be priced like a company where scale and breadth dilute focus rather than amplify it.

Leadership compensation underscores this tension.

Lashier’s most recently disclosed compensation, at approximately $22.6 million, places him near the top of the energy peer group. That level of pay implicitly signals confidence that Phillips 66 is being run at a leadership premium—that integration is working, that capital is being optimally allocated, and that complexity is being actively converted into value.

Shareholder outcomes tell a more restrained story.

Over the past year, Phillips 66 delivered solid but not standout returns—better than the broader energy sector, but trailing several refining-focused peers operating with far simpler portfolios and fewer internal trade-offs. For a company that argues its structure creates advantage, delivering merely “good” performance relative to best-in-class peers raises an uncomfortable question: what is the complexity buying?

There is also a less quantifiable—but critical—dimension of integration: leadership proximity to execution.

Integration is not forged in earnings calls or strategy decks. It is built where trade-offs are resolved—between segments competing for capital, between systems that don’t fully align, and between teams asked to move in sync without shared incentives. Sustained senior leadership presence in those environments matters. When that presence is limited, integration remains conceptual rather than operational.

None of this diminishes the effort of employees. Phillips 66 has capable people doing hard work in volatile conditions. The gap lies between strategy and operating reality.

Until integration demonstrably reduces volatility, improves capital outcomes, or delivers consistently superior returns, it will remain a promise rather than a proven advantage—and markets will continue to treat it accordingly.

When separating from WBA, market cap for the combined WBA was worth 8 billion. After they separated into individual companies like Walgreens, Boots, Alliance, Village MD etc, how much do you think just Walgreens by itself is worth? I don’t think it would be simply divide by three. Walgreens might be biggest out of all and do you think might be worth at least 4 billion out of 8 billion? If the WBA stock was still trading, would it be like $5.5 (half of what it was during buyout)? If that is true, would Walgreen’s current market cap be around 2.5 billion?

Does anyone know when the DTs are merging into AFO? I hate to see this because we will be treated like Wiretechs.

If it hits $360, that means it's time to exit my position.

https://www.barrons.com/articles/ibm-stock-price-top-pick-2026-35af20b3

By: Mackenzie Tatananni
Updated Jan 08, 2026, 2:59 pm EST / Original Jan 08, 2026, 2:15 pm EST

Skeptics may argue that International Business Machines has lost the clout it had decades ago, but one analyst is doubling down on his bullish bet on the stock heading into the new year.

Much of the negative noise surrounding IBM appears to be unfounded, according to Oppenheimer analyst Param Singh, who has chosen IBM as one of his top picks for 2026. He rates the stock at Outperform with a $360 price target.

IBM stock was 2.1% higher at $303.04 on Thursday as the Nasdaq Composite traded in the red. Singh’s price target suggests the stock can rise another 19%.

Attitudes on the stock are indubitably mixed. Of 22 analysts polled by FactSet, 11 rate IBM at Buy, while seven rate it at Hold, and four at Sell. So why the vote of confidence?

“Bears have the estimates wrong, making expectations low into the print,” Singh said, referring to IBM’s fourth-quarter earnings report due later this month. He believes IBM can deliver durable growth by consistently raising prices, and described its portfolio of software as “sticky,” meaning clients repeatedly return to the products even though alternatives exist.

IBM has been winning bigger contracts because it has more products and services to offer, largely driven by acquisitions and the rollout of new mainframe computers. Last year, it paid $6.4 billion for HashiCorp, a provider of infrastructure and security tools, and has had early success integrating those offerings into its portfolio.

Taken together, these factors could boost overall revenue by 6% and software revenue by 9% in 2026, Singh said. His call for revenue growth is double the consensus forecast on Wall Street and nearly double the call for growth in software revenue.

“We believe IBM will positively surprise the bears on its earnings through the year, driving upside to the stock,” Singh said.

That comes after a decent run in 2025, a year dominated by the conversation around artificial intelligence. Shares rose 35% last year, behind a 39% gain for AI heavyweight Nvidia but ahead of a 20% gain for the Nasdaq.

There already are signs 2026 will be a good year. Despite recent chatter, Oppenheimer’s checks show little to no customer attrition, even as IBM passes along a 6% price hike to customers renewing enterprise license agreements.

And then there is IBM’s consulting division, which has become a significant contributor to revenue. Singh and the Oppenheimer team see little evidence of a pullback on spending, although software is expected to continue to grow more rapidly

Software revenue is expected to achieve sustained, double-digit percentage growth as opposed to “low-single-digits” for IBM’s consulting arm, Oppenheimer said.

Barron’s wrote favorably on IBM for a different reason in December: the company’s burgeoning quantum-computing division. Big Blue was an early entrant in the space, and aims to release a fault-tolerant quantum supercomputer by the end of the decade. That would be an industry first.

Some numbers and data to review as many on these boards are asking questions re changes and prospects:

1. Enrollment decline or as they call "purge" of approx one million member:
   https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/medicare-advantage/unitedhealth-projects-1-million-member-drop-in-medicare-advantage-enrollment/

2. UHC's total membership by state:https://www.beckerspayer.com/payer/unitedhealthcares-total-membership-by-state/

3. Areas of exit.
   https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/unitedhealth-exit-medicare-advantage-plans-16-us-counties-2025-10-01/

Speaking of HouseCalls in particular. It appears that cuts will be targeting mostly rural areas.

I wonder if this will cause bp to reconsider sending so many jobs there. I mean, that’s not exactly business friendly.