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From google ai on Elliott Investment Management historical results:

As an activist hedge fund, Elliott Investment Management pushes for changes that often result in significant layoffs at the companies it invests in. While Elliott does not directly manage the day-to-day operations, its influence on corporate boards and demands for cost-cutting and restructuring have been closely linked to job cuts.
Examples of layoffs connected to Elliott Management
Southwest Airlines (2025): After Elliott acquired a major stake and secured board seats, the airline announced its first-ever company-wide layoffs. Critics believe this action was influenced by Elliott's push for profitability.
Salesforce (2023): Following Elliott's investment, Salesforce cut 10% of its workforce. Employees reportedly feared further layoffs due to Elliott's pressure for cost reductions and improved profitability.
AT&T (2019): After Elliott took a stake and demanded a strategic overhaul, AT&T cut tens of thousands of jobs and accelerated mass firings. This is viewed by critics as an example of Elliott's strategy prioritizing shareholder returns over employees.
Athenahealth (2018): After an Elliott subsidiary led a buyout, the company laid off employees, sold assets, and went private.
Juniper Networks (2015): Elliott's push for cost reductions at Juniper Networks reportedly led to job cuts at the tech company.
Why Elliott Management is linked to layoffs
Activist investor strategy: Elliott is known for "activist investing," where it buys a large stake in a company and then pushes for major changes to increase its stock value.
Focus on cost-cutting: Their playbook often involves demanding aggressive cost reductions, including slashing perceived "non-essential" departments to boost profits.
Control through board seats: The hedge fund often seeks control by gaining seats on a company's board, giving it direct influence over restructuring and personnel decisions.
Pressure for asset sales: Elliott sometimes advocates for selling off company assets to create cash for investors, which can destabilize operations and result in layoffs.


More California News

There are a couple of new stories out of California today.

  1. Phillips has settled a wage theft case for ~$12 million. This involves requiring employees to dress out early without being paid, deducting pay for lunches even when the lunches were interrupted or not even started at.
  2. The LA Refinery is “sitting on a lake of oil” from leaks over the years. So who is going to buy this land for redevelopment knowing this? It looks like P66 could have been money ahead by spending the money to make it competitive and continuing to operate it. Now they’re going to be paying for many years to clean it up.

Ford Update on Quality and Recalls

Ford has significantly improved product quality. Our 2025 initial quality is on track to become among our best ever, and Ford was the most awarded brand in the recent J.D. Power 2025 U.S. Initial Quality Study, with four Ford vehicles topping their segments.
The increase in recalls reflects our intensive strategy to quickly find and fix hardware and software issues and go the extra mile to help protect customers. Ford has more than doubled its team of safety and technical experts in the past two years and significantly increased testing to failure on critical systems in current Ford vehicles such as powertrains, steering and braking. Insights from this testing are being incorporated into current production.

We are making progress on software quality, using an enhanced software validation process to help ensure the right software is present on vehicles and using over-the-air updates to address potential warranty issues before they become customer issues.
Modern digital safety systems require new talent, tools, and standards. Ford has deeply invested in those capabilities like connected data signaling and dramatically increased testing on all new products across broad variations in customer use.

In applying these new standards, we can and do find issues that exist on earlier model years, including ones that have not even been reported. We will not compromise our responsibility to all our customers, not just those buying new vehicles.

We believe this approach will lead to systemic and lasting positive change and help us reach world-class levels for quality, safety and customer satisfaction.

Read more here:

https://www.fromtheroad.ford.com/us/en/articles/2025/ford-quality-update


More layoffs at Saks

The job cuts included the elimination of the merchandising coordinator position, as Saks Global continues to blend the merchandising systems of Saks Fifth Avenue and Neiman Marcus into an integrated system, WWD reports.

https://news.centurionjewelry.com/articles/detail/saks-cuts-90-jobs-in-another-round-of-layoffs


Layoffs and plant closures at International Paper

  • International Paper will close two Georgia mills, impacting 1,100 jobs.
  • The company will invest $250 million to convert an Alabama mill to produce containerboard.
  • International Paper is selling its Global Cellulose Fibers business for $1.5 billion.

https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/money/business/2025/08/21/international-paper-mill-closures-employee-layoffs/85760791007/


N&S Locating Services layoffs - 126 jobs eliminated

N&S Locating Services LLC says it will lay off most of the employees who report to its Franklin County office after its biggest customer in the state, internet service provider Brightspeed, pulled all of its work from N&S.

https://www.wral.com/story/utility-services-provider-eliminating-126-jobs-in-north-carolina-after-losing-contract/22125315/


Arena BioWorks layoffs

Arena BioWorks has laid off 30% of its workers 19 months after launching with $500 million and visions of bringing the Bell Labs model to biotech.

Changes at Arena BioWorks follow events that have shaken confidence in gene therapies.

https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/arena-bioworks-19-months-after-splashy-launch-lays-30-its-staff


Job cuts ahead at Bridgestone tire plant in Normal

There will be a significant workforce reduction at the Bridgestone Off-the-Road Tire Plant in Normal. Neither the company nor the United Steelworkers union representing workers could provide a precise number of jobs targeted.

https://www.wglt.org/local-news/2025-08-21/job-cuts-ahead-at-bridgestone-tire-plant-in-normal


IT employees’ union claims 30,000 job cuts, plans global action

The Union of IT & ITES Employees (UNITE) protested against TCS, alleging potential job cuts affecting 30,000 employees, a claim TCS denies, stating the reduction is around 2% of its global workforce. Supported by CITU, UNITE demands government intervention and warns of a larger layoff scale, while TCS emphasizes restructuring for future readiness with severance packages.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/tcs-layoffs-protest-it-employees-union-claims-30000-job-cuts-plans-global-action-company-issues-statement/articleshow/123403929.cms


At least 600 CDC employees are getting final termination notices

At least 600 employees of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are receiving permanent termination notices in the wake of a recent court decision that protected some CDC employees from layoffs but not others.

The notices went out this week and many people have not yet received them, according to the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents more than 2,000 dues-paying members at CDC.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/least-600-cdc-employees-are-getting-final-termination-notices-union-sa-rcna226252


How low mighty Intel has fallen!

Source below. The Economist, Aug 21st 2025 - 5 min read

Donald Trump’s fantasy of home-grown chipmaking

  • To remain the world’s foremost technological power, America needs its friends

How low mighty Intel has fallen. Half a century ago the American chipmaker was a byword for the cutting edge; it went on to dominate the market for personal-computer chips and in 2000 briefly became the world’s second-most-valuable company. Yet these days Intel, with a market capitalisation of $100bn, is not even the 15th-most-valuable chip firm, and supplies practically none of the advanced chips used for artificial intelligence (AI). Once an icon of America’s technological and commercial prowess, it has lately been a target for subsidies and protection. As we published this, President Donald Trump was even mulling quasi-nationalisation.

More than ever, semiconductors hold the key to the 21st century. They are increasingly critical for defence; in the ai race between America and China, they could spell the difference between victory and defeat. Even free-traders acknowledge their strategic importance, and worry about the world’s reliance for cutting-edge chips on tsmc and its home of Taiwan, which faces the threat of Chinese invasion. Yet chips also pose a fiendish test for proponents of industrial policy. Their manufacture is a marvel of specialisation, complexity and globalisation. Under those conditions, intervening in markets is prone to fail—as Intel so vividly illustrates.

To see how much can go wrong, consider its woes. Hubris caused the firm to miss both the smartphone and the ai waves, losing out to firms such as Arm, Nvidia and tsmc. Joe Biden’s CHIPS Act, which aimed to spur domestic chipmaking, promised Intel $8bn in grants and up to $12bn in loans. But the company is floundering. A fab in Ohio meant to open this year is now expected to begin operations in the early 2030s. Intel is heavily indebted and generates barely enough cash to keep itself afloat.

A factory worker in a red baseball cap holding up a shining silicon wafer
Illustration: Deena So'Oteh
The sums needed to rescue it keep growing. By one estimate Intel will need to invest more than $50bn in the next few years if it is to succeed at making leading-edge chips. Even if the government were to sink that much into the firm, it would have no guarantee of success. The company is said to be struggling with its latest manufacturing process. Its sales are falling and its plight risks becoming even more desperate.

The Biden administration failed with Intel, but Mr Trump could make things worse. He has threatened tariffs on chip imports, and may try to browbeat firms such as Nvidia into using Intel to make semiconductors for them. These measures might buy Intel time but they would be self-defeating for America. Chipmaking is not an end in itself but a critical input America’s tech sector requires to be world-beating. Forcing firms to settle for anything less than the best would blunt their edge.

What should America do? One lesson is not to pin the nation’s hopes on keeping Intel intact. It could sell its fab business to a deep-pocketed investor, such as SoftBank, which has reportedly expressed interest in buying it and this week announced a $2bn investment in Intel. Or it could sell its design arm and pour the proceeds into manufacturing. Intel may fail to catch up with TSMC even then. Either way, the federal government should not throw good money after bad. Taking a stake in Intel would only complicate matters.

That leads to a second lesson: to look beyond Intel and solve other chipmakers’ problems. tsmc is seeking to spread its wings. It is running out of land for giant fabs in Taiwan and its workforce is ageing. It has already pledged to invest $165bn to bring chipmaking to America. A first fab is producing four-nanometre (nm) chips and a second is scheduled to begin making more advanced chips by 2028. Samsung, a South Korean chipmaker that is having more success than Intel, is setting up a fab in Texas. But progress has been slow: Samsung and TSMC have both struggled with a lack of skilled workers and delays in receiving permits.

The last lesson is that, even if domestic chipmaking does make America more resilient, the country cannot shut itself off from the rest of the world. One reason is that the supply chain is highly specialised, with key inputs coming from across the globe, including extreme-ultraviolet lithography machines from the Netherlands and chipmaking tools from Japan. The other is that Taiwan and its security will remain critical. Even by the end of this decade, when tsmc’s third fab in America is due to begin producing 2nm chips, two-thirds of such semiconductors are likely to be made on the island. TSMC’s model is based on innovating at home first, before spreading its advances around the world.

To keep America’s chip supply chains resilient, Mr Trump needs a coherent, thought-through strategy—a tall order for a man who governs by impulse. No wonder he is going in the wrong direction. On Taiwan he has been cavalier, confident that China will not invade on his watch, while failing to offer the island consistent support. His tariffs on all manner of inputs will raise the costs of manufacturing in America; promised duties on chip imports will hurt American customers. He thrives on uncertainty, but chipmakers require stability.

A sensible chip policy would make it attractive to build fabs in America by easing rules over permits and creating programmes to train engineers. Instead of using tariffs as leverage, the government should welcome the imports of machinery and people that support chipmaking. Given the bipartisan consensus on the importance of semiconductors, the administration should seek a policy that has Democratic support—with the promise of continuity from one president to the next.

Economic nationalists should also see the progress of chipmakers in allied countries as a contribution to America’s security. Samsung is aiming to start producing 2nm chips in South Korea later this year. Rapidus, a well-funded chipmaking startup in Japan, is making impressive progress. Both countries have a tradition of manufacturing excellence, and may have a better shot at emulating Taiwan.

The chipmaking industry took decades to evolve. It is built for an age of globalisation. When economic nationalists build their policies on autarky, they are setting themselves a needlessly hard task—if not an impossible one.

https://www.economist.com/leaders/2025/08/21/donald-trumps-fantasy-of-home-grown-chipmaking


Hallmark eliminates 30 jobs

The company is tightening up its workforce across multiple divisions and restructured several parts of its business, resulting in the loss of 30 jobs. The cuts have been made with “the goal of investing in capabilities that will propel our business into the future,” according to a Hallmark spokesperson.

https://www.thewrap.com/hallmark-layoffs-company-restructuring/


Estée Lauder approves 3,200 job cuts

Cosmetics company has approved layoffs of 3,200 staff based on a previously disclosed restructuring plan and may reduce head count by another 3,800, with expected restructuring charges of up to $1.6 billion.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/estee-lauder-to-cut-up-to-7-000-jobs-as-china-and-duty-free-sales-stay-weak-82092ee3


Tech giant lays off 143 workers from former Bay Area headquarters

https://www.sfgate.com/tech/article/oracle-tech-giant-layoffs-headquarters-20819830.php

The tech company announced the cuts on Wednesday in WARN documents, as is generally required in the event of mass layoffs. One lists 45 layoffs at the company’s Pleaston campus; the other lists 143 at its former headquarters in Redwood City.

Software developers — at various levels of seniority — are being hit hard, according to the WARN notices. Within the category, six vice presidents are losing their jobs in Redwood City, plus 25 director- and manager-level employees and more than 60 lower-level developers.

The documents say that workers were notified on or before Wednesday and will officially leave the roles in mid-October. The WARN Act requires employers to give workers 60 days notice before a layoff, but tech companies tend to just end their laid-off workers’ jobs immediately and give them 60 days of pay.

Oracle did not immediately respond to SFGATE’s questions about the reason for the cuts and what severance pay these workers might receive. But Bloomberg reported Wednesday that the company was cutting staff from its massive cloud computing unit, including more than 150 workers in Seattle, so it’s likely that the Bay Area cuts were also from that group.

The company is based in Austin but, according to a 2024 statement from co-founder Larry Ellison, it will be moving its headquarters again, to Nashville. Official filings still say Austin.


John Deere Confirms 238 Layoffs Across 3 Plants

Facilities involved include:

  • Harvester Works in East Moline, Ill.: 115 (last day of work Aug. 29)
  • Seeding and Cylinder in Moline, Ill.: 52 (last day of work Sept. 26)
  • Foundry in Waterloo, Iowa: 71 (last day of work Sept. 19)

https://www.agweb.com/news/breaking-john-deere-confirms-238-layoffs-across-3-plants