#research

https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001702780/000170278026000059/optu-20261028.htm

What Was Filed

On October 28, 2026, Optimum Communications expanded its board from nine to eleven directors, appointing two new independent directors — Elizabeth Abrams and Daniel Silvers — and immediately formed a Special Committee composed exclusively of those two directors. The committee's mandate: evaluate potential strategic and financial transactions including financing, restructuring, reorganization, or recapitalization, AND review conflicts of interest involving related parties including current/former directors, officers, equity holders, and management companies.

What a Special Committee Means in Bankruptcy Context

This is not routine corporate governance. Special Committees of independent directors are formed in distressed situations for very specific legal and strategic reasons:

Legal protection for the board. When a company files Chapter 11, every major decision made in the months before filing gets scrutinized — by creditors, by the bankruptcy court, by examiners. Directors can face personal liability if they approved transactions that benefited insiders at the expense of creditors. Having two independent directors with no prior relationship to Drahi or the company evaluate and approve the restructuring provides a legal shield. The board can say "independent directors with no conflicts reviewed and approved this plan."

Creditor confidence. Apollo, Oaktree, and JPMorgan will not sign a final RSA without knowing the company's governance is clean enough to execute the deal without legal challenges. A Special Committee with conflict-of-interest review authority signals to creditors that the related-party issues — Altice Labs, the asset transfers they're suing over, Intelcia — are being reviewed independently before the filing.

Court approval. Bankruptcy judges look favorably on restructuring plans that were negotiated and approved by independent directors. It makes plan confirmation faster and reduces the risk of objections derailing the process.

Who Are Abrams and Silvers?

The filing doesn't provide backgrounds, but the structure tells us something. They were specifically recruited for this committee. The $75,000 monthly fee each ($150,000 combined) is substantial for board service — this is compensation for active, intensive work, not passive oversight. These are almost certainly experienced restructuring professionals or lawyers with Chapter 11 backgrounds who were brought in specifically for this transaction.

The Ropes & Gray connection to Silvers' brother is notable. Ropes & Gray has a premier restructuring practice and has been receiving $11 million from Optimum since January 2025 — meaning they've been deeply embedded in the restructuring preparation for nearly two years. Silvers' family connection required disclosure but was deemed not disqualifying.

Does This Favor Drahi or Creditors?

This favors creditors, not Drahi. Here's why:

The Special Committee's mandate explicitly includes reviewing "conflicts of interest involving related parties such as current or former directors, officers, equity holders, or management companies." Drahi is an equity holder and current director. His entities — Altice Labs, Intelcia, the management companies that extracted fees — are precisely the related parties this committee is tasked with reviewing.

Drahi cannot control this committee. He cannot vote on its decisions. The two independent directors have no relationship to him and are specifically empowered to scrutinize his transactions.

If this were designed to protect Drahi, the committee's mandate would be narrower — focused only on the restructuring transaction itself, not on related-party conflicts. The fact that related-party conflict review is explicitly in the mandate signals that creditors demanded this as a condition of the RSA. Apollo, Oaktree, and JPMorgan insisted on independent oversight specifically because of the asset transfer lawsuit and the history of insider extraction.

One caveat: Drahi's lawyers presumably reviewed and accepted this structure as part of the RSA negotiations. It's possible the committee's independence is partly theater — qualified enough to satisfy the court and creditors, but unlikely to result in clawback actions against Drahi personally. That's a common tension in distressed situations. But the structure itself is creditor-facing, not Drahi-protecting.

Does This Change the Timeline?

Yes — it accelerates it.

The Special Committee is the last major governance piece required before filing. Here's the typical pre-filing checklist for a prepackaged Chapter 11:

• ✅ Restructuring Support Agreement negotiated with major creditors
• ✅ Debtor-in-possession financing arranged
• ✅ New general counsel hired (Adriana Rios Welton, October 1)
• ✅ Restructuring-specific legal role created (Michael Olsen, Senior Executive Counsel Capital Transformation)
• ✅ Financial restatements addressed (September 16 filing)
• ✅ Special Committee of independent directors formed (October 28)
• ✅ Q3 financial results prepared (pending release)
• ⬜ Q3 results filed publicly
• ⬜ Chapter 11 petition filed

The only remaining public step before filing is the Q3 results. Everything else is done.

Two Massachusetts-based biotechnology companies, Adecto Pharmaceuticals and Aviceda Therapeutics, have announced they are ceasing operations. Adecto Pharmaceuticals has officially closed its doors after struggling with fundraising in a risk-averse market. Aviceda Therapeutics is in the process of winding down its operations due to disappointing clinical trial results. Adecto's CEO expressed hope that the company's research could still be advanced. Both companies were developing novel therapeutic treatments.

Boston, Massachusetts

https://www.biospace.com/job-trends/2-massachusetts-biotechs-call-it-quits

How is working in this organization: Active Materials and Process Research (AMP) in EMTEC?

What about HPE Research and Cray group? What do those people do? Amy revenue out of there? Are they going to continue or on the chopping block? I hear they do some AI stuff as well

Before you apply anywhere, make sure to check their layoff history. Many are doing the exact same thing as this place. I almost jumped to a competitor, then I checked their page and saw they're constantly cutting staff too. Big names aren't always safe names.

The University of Windsor is temporarily halting operations at its Cross-Border Institute. This decision comes as the new Gordie Howe International Bridge officially opens, connecting Windsor and Detroit. Union representatives expressed dismay at the timing, calling the move ironic. They argue that research on cross-border issues is more critical than ever with the bridge's launch. The university states the pause is intended to strengthen the institute's future capacity.

Windsor

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/uwindsor-cuts-crossborder-9.7282986

I highly recommend you research the original WP press release. Read it, then reread it slowly. It’s in the first paragraph. To add to that, Exhibit A Certificate of Incorporation of surviving Corporation. Agreement and Plan of Merger.

Ramp conducted a new study on AI adoption. The research focused on companies' spending habits. It revealed that high AI investment leads to more hiring. Companies are expanding their workforces, not reducing them. This finding challenges the perception of AI causing job cuts.

https://www.realclearmarkets.com/2026/07/02/ai_adoption_linked_to_more_hiring_not_layoffs_1192104.html

Researchers introduced new monthly data series for labor market separations. These series classify separations by reason and destination. The standard labor market model shows significant inaccuracies when confronted with this data. A revised model incorporating selective layoffs and random quits corrects these issues. This new framework alters the understanding of recessions and their welfare costs.

https://www.minneapolisfed.org/research/institute-working-papers/what-quits-and-layoffs-reveal-about-the-business-cycle

Centene is contracted by HHSC to manage their Medicaid spending. When Trump decided to make Medicaid cuts, it meant our membership would go down. Centene gets a monthly payment for each member on Medicaid. Without the member there is no money coming in which.means no money to pay you. Anytime you work for a company on a contract you have to understand that you can be cut at any point. Centene is built around Medicaid. Although They aren’t losing their contract, they’re losing their membership that Trump took away. Instead of putting Centene down, talk to Trump. He did this. Do your research. And before you apply for another job pay attention to who the company is that you’re saying yes too. That was your mistake by saying yes to a company that you didn’t even do your research on. Centene doesn’t have to offer anything to you on your way out but they did. Maybe it’s not what you wanted but they still offered. What is happening with Medicaid is out of their control. They have to do what’s best for the company to serve each member what is entitled to them. At the end of the day we are there to serve the member. But without a member there is no one to serve. Why should Centene pay you to sit in front of your computer and do nothing because there is no member to serve? That would be their worst business move. Stop putting Centene down and go talk to your president. Maybe his severance package will better suit you.

Genentech underwent another round of layoffs this week. These cuts affected its early research and development group. The company closed its infectious disease research unit. Another research unit was also shuttered during this restructuring. Top scientist Vishva Dixit was among the employees laid off.

https://endpoints.news/exclusive-genentech-closes-infectious-disease-unit-in-wave-of-research-layoffs/

https://vortexmetals.ca/vortex-metals-appoints-renowned-geophysicist-dr-craig-w-beasley-as-technical-advisor/

What is it and is Intel developing it?

Ladies and Gentlemen, always go with your gut feeling. Don’t rely on or listen to the rhetoric that you read on these posts, you will never know if they are friend or foe from within Xerox or even the industry. Do your research and have a “gut check” to understand where you are in all of this chaos, and make a decision. Either stick it out and give it you’re all while supporting team mates or choose to refresh your resume, and seek a different path moving forward.

Those of us that are/were actually in this industry, know it’s not the easiest way to make a living, but it is lucrative if you take care of customers and gain their trust.

Consider your future either way: Personally, I was part of an iRIF. Fortunately, I noticed some red flags that caused me to take a defensive move several months prior to being let go. # 1 flag was the COO stepping down after building up the re-invention plan.

Whatever your decision, plan for your future, whether you stay or decide to move on.

There is nothing of value that comes out of 90% of the work our ‘researchers’ do. They get paid for making up bumber in the air, dragging projects for 2-3 years until a new manager arrives , tweak and drag some more. Dead after 10 years. rinse and repeat. how stupid does our company have to be to not see through the BS? it’s embarrasing to talk to them from business unit perspective. there are people working genuinely hard, everyday trying to meet the targets and doing honest work, spending hours stressed about meeting baseline — but the research orgs? what the he-l are they doing? made up work no one wants to use? why are we allowing to continue this clear inefficiency?

If any leader with common sense and some ba--s reads this, please conduct an audit of the claims of research projects and actual value delivered over years. Its mind numbingly d-mb to let these projects and organizations survive. Nothing against the people, they are smart ( but scared to speak up) deploy them to do something useful. Oil and gas is not rocket science.

Someone in the MC please get rid of these EmTec jokers in Upstream research. Its a blatant waste of company’s money to satisfy egos of nobody phDs with no original ideas, just su-king the company dry by wasting time on useless ‘ideas’.

Just do an aidit of spends and value created, surely someone is checking the billions of dollars in valuations they claim? right?

I am joining EJ in couple of weeks and really worried about layoffs. I am leaving my current job to join EJ. There is pay bump in this job at EJ but I am afraid that the work load is too much and not sure how much is the bonus. They said the bonus for senior director is anywhere from 35-60% and I will be at level 15 and the next level is senior partner. How are the bonuses in the research department and do they pay good bonuses.?

Carnegie Mellon University announced Wednesday it is laying off 75 software engineering staff members due to changes in federal priorities.

The 75 positions make up about 10% of the Software Engineering Institute’s staff.

SEI is a federally funded research center focusing on artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. It has worked with the U.S. Department of Defense since 1984, according to its website.

https://www.wesa.fm/education/2025-10-08/carnegie-mellon-lays-off-75-from-software-engineering-institute

https://developers.redhat.com/articles/2025/10/08/quantum-computing-101-developers

I look after the Gartner contracts for a large multinational. Am curious as to internal position on AI, with deep research now I can often get better insight from a broader fact base faster and more tailored to what I need. What is the internal talk about using this for better research? Forrester has with their Izola. Also what’s the deal with sales teams, they seem super desperate at the moment, nearly threatening with things like price increase if you don’t renew early, or sign up to this or that, real hard sell, justify to me how you could possibly survive without Gartner etc. is that just my account?

At the end of this week? This month? I just want to be able to work without always thinking whether more layoffs were threatening my livelihood every single day.

Layoffs in Spain were confirmed again today via an early morning email, following a pattern similar to the previous announcement. Thoughts are with all colleagues.

I can confirm there were layoffs well beyond TA, as I was part of group more than 110 research support staff that were unceremoniously informed that it was their last day at Gartner and given less than 24 hours to download their paystubs and say their goodbye to their colleagues. It was truly a brutal and emotionally devastating experience.

Can anyone clarify the current situation and schedule for Imperial’s Sarnia research facilities? I had heard they were being shuttered and relocated to Texas, but more recently I’ve seen that fewer than 100 personnel may be affected, with changes phased in through 2028.

Does anyone have factual updates or confirmation on what’s actually happening?

How’s the dumpster fire in Clinton going? How many older employees got targeted for the PIP this year? A truly toxic company with no integrity..

I have heard a rumor that the Research/Engineering EMTECH Organization Charges $400+ USD per hour to an Affiliate for EMTECH Services in 2025. Is this True?

Pre-2020, the cost of an SME in EMRE (now EMTECH) was only $230 per hour and the cost of a Junior Engineer was $180 per hour.

Why is EMTECH so expensive in 2025?

Most of the research employees are great but useless to the company’s bottomline. the projects are outdated. they do no real work.

why can’t we just shut our research companies once and for all. there is no technology in the world that a vendor cannot offer better services from than our current employees who are hanging on for retirement? its a genuine question m, does anyone know whats the reason we still have semi decimated research teams?