#integration

Swiss banking giant UBS has reportedly eliminated approximately 200 positions in its London operations. These reductions occurred over recent weeks and impacted various business divisions within the bank. The job cuts are part of UBS's ongoing integration efforts following its acquisition of Credit Suisse. Affected areas include wealth management and investment banking. Some employees may be offered alternative roles within the company.

London, United Kingdom

https://www.ndtvprofit.com/business/ubs-layoffs-banking-giant-cuts-about-200-jobs-who-will-get-affected-12285354

A new analysis of over 300 game studios acquired in the last 25 years reveals a troubling trend of decline and closure. Approximately 61% of these studios experienced reduced game sales, lower review scores, or outright shutdowns after being bought by larger companies. This pattern has intensified recently, with a significant surge in closures since 2023. The identity of the acquiring company appears to be the most critical factor in a studio's post-acquisition fate. While some publishers like Activision Blizzard and Disney have a history of negative outcomes, others such as Nintendo and Sumo Group have maintained a strong track record of success.

https://www.techspot.com/news/114450-third-acquired-game-studios-have-shut-down-since.html

Knights Group has completed its acquisition of Moore Barlow, a South East England law firm. This integration has led to redundancies among business services staff. Approximately 150 non-legal roles were eliminated following the deal's finalization. The company has not officially commented on the specific number of affected employees. No lawyer positions were impacted by these changes.

Guildford, United Kingdom

https://www.cityam.com/london-listed-knights-recent-acquisition-results-in-staff-layoffs/

Xerox saved Lexmark from being wiped out as a wholely owned subsidiary (since 2016) of Ninestar Corp (formerly Apex) trying to operate in the US against bans of forced Uyghur labor.

Forced labor producing printer parts and toner.

Now the Lexmark management run the show at Xerox and insist on their "Legacy Lexmark" differentiation.

Add "identity crisis" to the list of headwinds.

Seems like the organization design is mostly rolled out. It's been a long time waiting for many people, and a lot of the timelines took longer than expected. Seems to be a general reduction in roles, especially in North America, and a number of retirements. Thoughts on the status?

https://deadline.com/2026/10/skydance-streaming-tv-jb-perrette-executives-hbo-max-paramount-plus-1237208903/

basically HBO execs P teams folded mostly into them - for now lol

As part of its integration following the merger with Direct Line Group, Aviva internally announced on October 14, 2026, a restructuring of its Digital Engineering department, impacting over 67 roles.

Online styling firm Lookiero is initiating a restructuring that will impact approximately 10% of its employees. This decision follows a significant funding round completed just nine months prior. The company cited a financial paradox where positive EBITDA does not translate to sufficient cash flow for its current structure. Integration of artificial intelligence and resulting productivity gains are also contributing factors to the changes. This move highlights increasing pressure on tech companies to manage liquidity alongside operational profitability.

https://app.dealroom.co/news/note/lookiero-plans-layoffs-nine-months-after-17-2m-raise-backed-by-public-money

Acquiring Sky, a complete European company was the d-mbest move ever made by a US company. Europe is generally considered a laid back culture where people don’t hustle beyond work hours and extend their work and more priority is given to wlb, unlike US which is more capitalistic and squeezes the employees. Whoever suggested and approved the Sky acquisition should be blamed for where the company stands now.

Fox may have been a better acquisition, but Disney thwarted it. 40 Billion dollars spent for the acquisition and years of work integrating the systems which was just completed last year, but not one thought on whether the cultures would align between 2 geographically and politically different companies. Add to this the rise of AI and intense competition from FWA, fiber and satellite players - it’s as if Comcast has no leverage left on any front.

Well, guess more people are going to have to kiss their jobs goodbye thanks to this AMPLIFI integration.

Have we learned anything from the past, or are we watching the same movie replay in real-time?
Look at what's happening right now:

The Stock & Management: The stock has taken a beating recently, but management continues to push the same polished slides about strategic growth and operational excellence. Where is the real strategy?

Integration Disaster 2.0: Remember years ago when acquisitions were absorbed so poorly that systems broke, product lines stagnated, and teams were left in absolute limbo? We are walking straight into that exact same trap with our recent acquisitions. Instead of actual operational integration, we're getting fragmented teams, redundant leadership, and chaos in field operations.

The "Digital" Transformation Mirage: Executive leadership loves preaching "technology and digitization," but what do we actually have to show for it? The VP of Digital was quietly let go earlier this year after hyped tenure that produced virtually zero tangible, market-ready tech. If digital is our future, why is there no real, groundbreaking software or tech hitting the market? Who is actually steering this ship?

Is this just executive posturing to boost short-term metrics before another round of restructuring, or does anyone internally see a real path forward?

Just how widespread are the issues, are you seeing trainwrecks in your own product lines future? Be honest, open your eyes and look beyond this day/week/month - are you actually seeing progress?

American Woodmark is eliminating assembly operations at its Gas City, Indiana, plant. This action will result in the permanent layoff of up to 207 employees. Finishing operations at the facility will continue. The company is undergoing a manufacturing network assessment as part of its integration strategy with MasterBrand. These changes are aimed at achieving significant cost synergies.

Gas City, Indiana

https://www.woodworkingnetwork.com/news/woodworking-industry-news/american-woodmark-cuts-assembly-operations-masterbrand-continues

Queens University has confirmed a limited number of layoffs following its merger with Elon University. These workforce reductions have impacted faculty and staff members. The university has not provided specific details on the exact number of positions eliminated. This comes one year after the initial merger announcement. The university is continuing to integrate operations with Elon.

Charlotte, North Carolina

https://charlotteledger.substack.com/p/queens-quietly-trims-workforce-amid-merger

No conspiracy theories here. So, what really happened to EMC? EMC was built differently. premium storage drove everything. enterprise customers mattered most. engineering carried real weight. then cloud changed infra. workloads moved somewhere else... customr buying patterns changed too. the old model got fu---d up. dell brought another op model where scale mattered more and cost control mattered even more. standardization was crucial indeed. sooooo, the integration never fully clicked. products kept overlapping. leadership kept rotating . cost pressure never let go. Innovation suffered as it was hard to do and the portfolio stayed complicated at best . meanwhile, cloud kept moving faster... I dont think there was one decision or mistake that destroyed emc. it happened more gradually. the special conditions that benefited EMC went away then EMC's market simply moved elsewhere. my 2c, may be off but this is how i am processing it.

Is anything going to come from this integration? Does supply chain pay drop to procurement or procurement get bumped to supply chain curve?

New Tech Global Staffing is undergoing significant changes following its acquisition by Airswift. The company's consulting and recruiting divisions will be integrated and rebranded under the Airswift name. The staffing division itself will cease operations. Employee separations are scheduled to commence in October. This restructuring marks a new chapter for the company.

Houston, Texas

https://www.bizjournals.com/houston/news/2026/09/16/new-tech-global-staffing-layoffs-airswift-deal.html

No more regional - ITS EAST OR WEST. Byebye SFAs. Merging of teams incoming. Fight for your spot. You are now Amazon employees, 100%. Amazon everything. TheWorkNumber will say you've worked at Amazon since July. Good luck trying to say you worked at Whole Foods. That's all gone. There is no worker history. You're done. STLs in charge of multiple "daily shop" stores.

So much for delivering systems

Software firm Qualtrics has eliminated 117 positions at its Seattle location. These layoffs follow the company's recent acquisition of Press Ganey Forsta. Employees were notified of the cuts on August 19th, with their last day being October 18th. The company stated these decisions were made to integrate operations and create a unified team. This action is part of a broader restructuring effort to eliminate duplicate roles.

Seattle, Washington

http://www.chronline.com/stories/software-maker-qualtrics-cuts-117-jobs-in-seattle,407566?

Rumors some Optum departments being absorbed by UHG? Any intel

What are PepsiCo’s plans for the current TSR position if the beverage and snack businesses eventually combine their frontline sales teams?

TV Hardware Distribution will close its Chicago office, impacting over 100 employees. The company is consolidating operations into its Indiana headquarters. Layoffs are scheduled to begin in October and continue into January. This move aims to streamline operations and reduce costs. The closure is part of a larger integration effort.

Chicago, Illinois

https://www.galesburg.com/story/news/state/2026/08/25/illinois-to-lose-jobs-due-to-change-at-indiana-company/91394135007/

So what does everyone think? I guess we know why Ramon always seemed to be in DC. I wonder if layoffs/offshoring will start for those folks once "synergies" are determined. Overlaps in back-office, compliance, or distribution could eventually lead to some efficiencies once integrated. More roles of Accenture. It didn't seem to move the needle on the stock price.

Ours or Warners? Doesn’t it make sense to ingest all the Warner content into P+ and call it good or are we just going scrap everything we’ve built for the past 4 years?

Curious if any other Discover legacy people received an Above Average rating during the mid year calibration

With another year or so of integration still ahead of us, I’m also wondering how much value these elevated ratings actually carry if Capital One ultimately eliminates your team or role? Are they taken into consideration when applying for internal positions or being considered by other teams?

Is the plan to actually integrate/onboard them or replace them with H1-B hires in India, once their systems have been brought over?

There doesn’t seem to be any plan, from what I can tell. Seems like they are trying to figure out what to do with the NatGen folks. Or maybe they aren’t in the plans for the future, and that’s the reason.

When do we think the next round of integration/restructuring layoffs will happen? Probably at least one more big one before the end of the year?

It seems lik all of the new A.I. revenue will be led by the on-shore non-AWS employees at all of the System Integrators/GSI's big and (Accenture, Deloitte, Kyndryl, IBM) that will delpy and embed/integrate onsite with the client workforce.

Ansys still has departments that overlap with Synopsys—such as back-office and marketing—but does anyone know what process will be used to integrate them and lay off current employees?

Also, given that there have been multiple rounds of layoffs, does the company still have the financial capacity to pay severance packages if employees in these overlapping departments are laid off?

How is everyone doing?
Another week done and it feels like we are hamsters on wheels. Same s*** different day. We get a message from
Our Chief Revenue Officer about finishing the Q strong - with 2 days to go that’s kinda late. Where he been hanging out the last few months? Maybe if he checked integration that was supposed to help like move to D365 now even more late than the 7th version of timeline we’ll all get to a more stable position?

Thoughts re: Corebridge Financial terminating as a legal entity when it is absorbed into Equitable Holdings?

Just floating around with the tide and no destination. They could have been something if they bought up companies and simply just left them alone. The hubris of strategy, synergies, and merger integration....SBC RBOC boys from Texas. They were block head hammers and everything was a nail. Saw it first hand with the Cingular tie up. SBC heads for the most part were belligerent bulldozers.

A new RIF appears to be in the works. VPs and above are holding all-hands meetings with Samantha at The Ridge in mid-July. With the ongoing Frontier integration, major reorganizations are expected, along with anticipated RIF activity beginning in Q4. This is expected to be a significant shake-up affecting employees across all bands.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota is laying off 45 employees. The layoffs stem from an integration with Cambia Health Solutions. The company currently employs about 900 people in the state. Some affected employees will transition into new roles. This restructuring aims to better serve community members.

Bismarck, ND

https://www.dakotanewsnetwork.com/2026/05/27/blue-cross-blue-shield-announces-layoffs/

Belden is acquiring Ruckus from Vistance for about $1.85B. Expected to close in the second half of 2026, pending regulatory approval.

Between now and close, they will keep operating as separate companies — that’s a legal requirement, not a formality. No joint planning, pricing, or customer data sharing with Belden. Integration planning happens, but only through controlled “clean teams.” If they have people they can’t afford to lose, they will flag them now. Retention conversations are starting.

Most people won’t feel much change at first. The Ruckus brand stays. Product roadmaps, customer contracts, and sales teams keep moving. Customers and partners shouldn’t see disruption.
What’s happening as this is being written: the consolidation has started. A few functions will move over to Belden — HR, Finance, Legal, Tax, Treasury, Audit, Procurement, Corporate Comms, IR, and eventually IT. Real estate gets looked at wherever there’s overlap.

This may change, but what stays at Ruckus, at least for now: engineering, product management, sales, channel ops and partner programs, customer support, and the go-to-market teams. These are the reasons Belden bought Ruckus, and disrupting them would undercut the whole deal.

Now, the bridge period: Vistance will keep providing back-office services through a Transition Services Agreement for a while. IT separation alone usually takes 12–18 months, and in my experience it always costs more and takes longer than the first plan suggests.

1 to 1.5 year outlook: expect channel programs, partner tiers, and sales comp to get harmonized. Product lines that overlap with Belden’s will get rationalized.
Please ask any questions.

Gilead Sciences is laying off 108 employees from Arcellx's Redwood City site. This action follows Gilead's recent $7.8 billion acquisition of CAR-T biotech Arcellx. The job cuts are part of the integration process after the buyout closed. Affected employees have been notified of the decision. The layoffs are scheduled to begin at the end of June.

Redwood City, CA

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/after-arcellx-buyout-close-gilead-trims-108-jobs-car-t-biotechs-redwood-city-outpost

Too bad they dont have CS on the board of Microsoft so we can all get the Microsoft 365 reminder to "integrate copilot into your workday to prevent yourself from falling below 3 days a week!"

RTO has become AITO

Your notices go out May 1!

Mandatory voluntary compliance for AI user metrics...Now someone tell me AI is not a bubble

FIS Sale with help from KPMG
https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/4397200392/
KPMG is currently seeking a Director, Banking and Payments IT M&A – Due Diligence, Integration and Separation – Strategy to join our KPMG Strategy practice.
Responsibilities:
Lead and oversee comprehensive Buy-Side and Sell-Sideassessments across critical IT domains for potential client acquisitions, witha focus on banking / payments platforms and ecosystems; identify key IT risks,opportunities, and investments needed, and deliver executive-level duediligence reports with strategic recommendations
Direct IT integration andseparation initiatives from planning through execution for banking andpayments-related transactions, including retail and commercial banking,merchant acquiring, issuing, processing, and digital payments capabilities;oversee development of IT current state assessments, entanglementidentification, operating model definitions, synergies, and Day one andpost-close plans. Platforms include Fiserv, FIS, Thought Machine and understanding of the data landscape in banking (e.g., Customer360, familiarity with key data platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks etc.)
Develop and executego-to-market strategies for Technology Mergers and Acquisitions offerings focused on payments,fintech enablement, platform modernization, and ecosystem integration; providethought leadership on banking and payments technology architectures, includingcard networks, core banking platforms, fraud platforms, and modern cloud-nativebanking /payment stacks
Establish and manage program governance frameworks,ensuring rigorous oversight of execution across complex, multi-vendor paymentsenvironments; lead development of governance work products including statusreporting, risk management, and issue tracking; implement AI-powered tools forpredictive analytics on project timelines and risks and collaborate with seniorcross-functional teams to identify technology dependencies, risks, andopportunities across payments operations, product, risk, and compliancefunctions
Lead strategic discussions andpresentations with executive IT and business stakeholders, including CIOs,CTOs, and payments product leaders
Manage efforts to mentor and develop junior staff, fosteringdeep payments technology expertise, delivery excellence across the team, anda culture of innovation with a focus on leveraging AI and other emergingtechnologies
Act with integrity, professionalism, and personal responsibility to uphold KPMG's respectful and courteous work environment
Qualifications:
Minimum eight years of recent experience in technology/businessconsulting and/or technology leadership, with a proven track record of leadingIT transformations and advising on complex Mergers and Acquisitions transactions
Master's of Business Administration degree from an accredited college or university is preferred; Minimum of a Bachelor's degree in Information Systems, Computer Science, Finance, or a related field is required
Demonstrated success in leading high-impact IT-focused Mergers and Acquisitions projects with expertise in at least three of the following: systemintegration/separation, platform migration, IT architecture modernization,outsourcing of IT operations, or regulatory technology implementation; advancedprogram management skills, with the capacity to oversee large, complex projectsand deliver strategic insights to executive audiences; familiaritywith leveraging AI-powered platforms for due diligence, synergy analysis, andintegration/separation planning is a significant plus
Proven track record leading complex technology Mergers and Acquisitions engagements (pre- and post-deal) within the Financial Services industry,covering banking / payments sectors; in-depth knowledge of the technology andregulatory landscape specific to Financial Services, including experience withcore banking/payments platforms and the IT implications of regulatory rules and changes
Comprehensive understanding of IT best practices andenterprise IT ecosystems, including major ERP and business applicationplatforms, IT solutions, systems, infrastructure, and cybersecurity
Strong strategic thinking and leadershipabilities with experience developing and executing IT strategies that alignwith business objectives; experience developing and executing go-to-marketstrategies incorporate AI-driven solutions and driving business growth in theM&A space, including client relationship management and engagement inbusiness development activities; proven ability to lead and mentorcross-functional teams

One Call has completed its acquisition of Data Dimensions. This acquisition aims to replace fragmented processes. It will create a unified system. The system connects data, workflows, and payments. This applies across the workers' compensation health care industry.

https://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2026/04/15/one-call-completes-acquisition.html