#strategy

Nobody talks about AT&T anymore because the story's already been told. It's a long, slow decline. Smart people are leaving in droves, employees and customers alike. We've sold off everything valuable, cut every corner, and brought in expensive consultants to try to fix it. New menu, new decor, new theme, and none of it worked. This place is done.

Our highly paid creatives couldn’t anticipate the 80’s and 90’s teen loyalists would soon be middle aged and market a dad shoe to them before new balance did? For Christ’s sake, get a clue.

My director spilled to me that the IBP is likely over 140 this year.

Wul talking more b4ll today. Says Employees are great but doesn't says he doesn't pay them. Says his going to turn around the share price or break the company up.

Next is investor day in June, buys him a qtr. Betting all his hopes on Hogan and AI generating loads of SAAS revenue.

Hopefully, we can deliver the quantification of the message and sell the message and get the message received and people buy the stock and the stock goes up. If that doesn't happen, I know there's breakup value here that's above and beyond where we have today. And it's been public. We've had different suitors and they've leaked stuff.

The breakup value is there today. I'd like to get it to a different level. I'm not saying never, but I am saying today, I've got great assets, great footprint, great people, great trajectory, great direction, and I want to give our people a chance, and we're generating cash. we're going to stabilize the revenue profile. And I think Investor Day will be a great day to show how that picture really frames out. But I'm also a realist. If the play doesn't work, we're going to change the play and how to get value for all of us as investors if we have to change the play

interested to see reactions from some of these points, Dell is doing great these last few days in terms of stock, but is it short lived? I keep thinking about SMCi and they just seem to have the right blueprint.

consider my thought process:

​SMCI is strategically absorbing short-term gross margin compression (6.4%) to aggressively secure physical data center footprints. Once the bare-metal hardware is deployed, this establishes a captive base to upsell high-margin, proprietary Data Center Building Block Solutions and cooling maintenance. SMCi is leading Dell in this technology.

​AI-Driven Service Transformation: The traditional, human-intensive IT service model is being commoditized. AI automation is reducing the need for massive, global break-fix support teams, neutralizing the historical scale advantage of legacy hardware providers. Dell has not shown an interest to unleash their sw devs with Ai. they buy vs invent, well, overnight the world can invent more quickly and Dell isn't investing right

​Expansion into AI-RAN and Edge Telecom: By writing lean, specialized software stacks for distributed environments, SMCI is capturing the emerging Artificial Intelligence Radio Access Network, and Sovereign AI edge markets before slower legacy systems like Dell can adapt. this is far bigger than most know.

​Zero-Touch, Self-Healing Infrastructure: Integrating agentic AI into Baseboard Management Controllers and orchestration software enables autonomous power routing, predictive failure analysis, and real-time cooling adjustments, drastically cutting the operational overhead of rack maintenance. think, more self healing, less armies of physical technical support staff needed

​Direct Liquid Cooling & Next-Gen Silicon: The thermal physics of upcoming architectures—specifically the NVIDIA Vera Rubin NVL72 and HGX Rubin NVL8—mandate advanced liquid cooling. SMCI's in-house DLC engineering and rapid time-to-market provide a structural lead in deploying these dense, 100kW+ AI racks.

​Financial Disconnect & Valuation Asymmetry: Despite exceptional top-line revenue growth (recent quarters posting >120% YoY growth to over $12.6B), SMCI trades at highly compressed multiples (trailing P/E ~24x, P/S ~0.4x). The stock is structurally mispriced relative to its market share expansion in AI hardware volume. dell is now in hold territory, smci might be a huge opportunity.

​Legacy Over-Reliance on Bloated Ecosystems: Incumbent behemoths are institutionally bound to massive enterprise sales forces and heavy management software suites. These legacy structures create internal friction and require high-margin subsidization, making them vulnerable to agile, pure-play engineering firms. Dell is competing against the true lean mavericks (see what I did there). many sales folks on this, you're the champions keeping Dell going, kudos, but... change happens

​Rapid Obsolescence of Traditional Software: The democratization of code via AI is collapsing the moat of legacy IT management software, this is the real place Dell is able to macgyver the numbers. Historically a competitive advantage for Dell, but now Leaner competitors utilizing AI-assisted development can now quickly replicate and streamline orchestration layers, bypassing the traditional software lock-in of these legacy giants.

interesting time to watch... I'm long on both, but I feel smci is better suited for the long haul, I'll be getting out from Dell, selling, later this year, but not just yet.

oh and I think more layoffs are coming, so it's not too off topic

The new course on SAP Strategy is really inspiring. I love the presentation given by SS.

And there are no layoffs mentioned. Looks like we can all breathe freely this year.

Remind me, how much did we pay for it and how much did we sell it for? Just another proof Stankey is an id--t with no business sense.

With 5G and 6G coming on tower to the home internet service, how will conventional fiber to the home survive? This company is wasting money on an outdated technology. The money to be made is in backbone fiber and fiber to the tower it seems. It's id--tic to spend $ on customer fiber drops anymore..

1. Voyix Software is terrible and might work in 5 years (20 more quarters or what you already know…RIF cycles.) AI driven software coding from actual BigTech software companies will beat anything Voyix attempts in 5 years. Software is the only strategy Jim Kelly and Board have for Voyix…that should should concern you.
2. Voyix has given up on hardware w/the ODM move. The company leadership and strategy is toward cr-ppy software (see above). No one is is focused on selling hardware and hence sales/revenue will continue to decline while competitors like Toast and Toshiba who really want to and are committed to be in the hardware business take market share.
3. Hardware and Desk Services - the actual heart of Voyix revenue and earnings is going to continue to decline as it did throughout all 2024 & 2025. No focus, priority, or investment is given to it in Voyix. Voyix hasn’t trained a service technician in its training centers in an entire year to save $.

Was informed by a Us bank home mortgage Supervisor that by the end of year all of our jobs will be offshored including her role.

Per google--As of early 2026, U.S. Bank has continued to focus on operational efficiency within its mortgage division, with employee reports indicating a strong push to move staff into specific hub locations rather than maintaining fully remote positions to include U.S. Bank is actively implementing layoffs in early 2026, including in February, that specifically target remote workers who do not live near designated "hub" locations, according to employee reports.

These cuts are part of a broader, ongoing strategy to centralize operations, with reports indicating further layoffs intended for March 2026.

Its the worst. They have nothing to show and all they do is take years for decisions.
Thought Katie would be better but no progress. We are so behind on data tooling and no strategy to move forward. The move to Dennis wont help as he is out of depth.

Do we still have a strategy function? What do they do? Just making decks again, or driving value? If the latter, when does the value part happen?

If no value… why… you know… do we have them? Overpriced MBA’s gotta go somewhere. Why here?

It seems the back and forth changes on trade are negatively impacting the market and consumer sentiment. This will likely make the turnaround of this place all the harder for Dan to achieve.

They should make sure that a 14 gear engine is created. The market is asking for it.

That's the only strategy we need. And yes, fire everyone at the top, replace them with a bot that will help people build better and sell more laptops.

That's it, a McKinsey masterpiece in two sentences.

You can thank me later.

What are your thoughts on our partnership with NVDIA? does this have a potential to put is in a position where we finally get some growth. Honestly , I think the most of our problems stem from the fact that our growth is su-ky and maybe we can catch some of this ai pixie dust to help with that...

thoughts?????

Repsol has determined that an APA reverse merger would be disadvantageous to the company’s shareholders as the risk and liability far outweigh the benefits. Repsol management’s attention is now on Venezuela oil production and refining operations. The linkages that maybe realized in Alaska are very short term. An example is ENI developed several fields with higher potential than Pikka to eventually divest to Hilcorp at a loss.

Worked here a while and still really don’t understand what Lead to One is. Is it the the rolling up of all the cignahealthcare lines of business up into the Evernorth brand? None of the corporate buzzwords have really described it

Why doesn’t Cigna just close some of the offices instead of doing these massive layoffs? Does anyone know if they plan to do this as part of their strategy after February?

The misguided leadership of OBD model is dead. No more time wasted on this terd

Why in this day and age are we still pushing direct tv stream so hard. Especially in certain markets. Make it make sense to push such a dying technology when it only is worth 5% on the dashboard!

I wonder how it may have turned out for Crown if Mr Paul Elliott Singer had not reared his head.

IBM bucks AI-fueled layoff trend, triples entry-level hiring for 2026. How long until the CEO FOMO has Wells (and the rest of Wall St.) start hiring again?

Publish Date: 27th June 2025

ExxonMobil, the world’s largest publicly traded oil & gas supermajor, was formed via the $73.7 billion merger of Exxon and Mobil in 1999. As of 2023, it employs around 72,000 people worldwide, with annual revenue of approximately $334 billion and total assets worth about $340 billion. The company operates across upstream (oil & gas exploration and production), downstream (refining and chemicals), and chemical sectors, with a growing portfolio in LNG, carbon capture, and advanced chemicals. It manages vast upstream assets in the U.S., Guyana, and Indonesia, and downstream assets in 20 countries. Growth initiatives focus on the Permian Basin, Guyana offshore development, and LNG projects.

Historical M&A Deals (Chronological, up to 2023)

Year Target Type Value (approx)

1919 Humble Oil & Refining Acquisition –
1928 Creole Petroleum (Venezuela) Acquisition –
1984 Superior Oil Co. Acquisition $5.7 bn
1999 Mobil Corp. Merger $81 bn
2009 XTO Energy Acquisition $36 bn + $11 bn debt
2011 Phillips Resources, TWP Acquisition $1.69 bn
2012 Land swap with Denbury (Bakken) Swap $1.6 bn
2012 Celtic Exploration (Canada) Acquisition $2.6 bn
2013 Esso Card & BOPP films Divestiture –
2014 HK pumped storage stake Stake sale $33 m USD hong kong currency
2015 Chalmette Refining Divestiture $322 m
2017 InterOil Corp. Acquisition $2.5 bn
2018 Federal (Indonesia lubricants) Acquisition $436 m
2019 Norway oil & gas assets Divestiture $4 bn
2021 Santoprene polymers Divestiture $1.15 bn
2021 UK & North Sea upstream Divestiture $1 bn
2022 Billings Refinery & assets Divestiture $310 m
2022 Nigeria MPNU sale (Seplat) Divestiture $800 m
2023 Denbury Inc. Acquisition $4.9 bn
2023 Pioneer Natural Resources Merger ~$60 bn ($64.5B incl. debt)
This list encompasses 20+ key transactions illustrating ExxonMobil’s strategic expansion, divestiture, and portfolio shaping moves.

Recent M&A Activity (2024–2025)

Pioneer Natural Resources
Completed in May 2024, the $60 bn all‑stock merger doubled Exxon’s Permian footprint, pushing production to ~1.3 → 2 MM boe/d by 2027. Expected synergies exceed $3 bn/year, $1 bn above initial projections.

Esso France Sale
As of May 2025, Exxon is negotiating to divest its 82.9% stake in Esso France to Canada’s North Atlantic Groupe, valued at €149/share (€63 distribution prior) with deal closing expected late 2025.

Thai Gas Assets
In Q1 2025, Exxon sold stakes in the E5, E5N, and EU1 onshore blocks in Thailand to Horizon Oil for ~$30 m plus contingent payments.

European Refining/Chemical Divestitures
Closed late 2024, Exxon sold Fos-sur-Mer refinery and Gravenchon chemical plant to Rhône Energies for undisclosed billions, exiting aging European assets.

Divestiture Strategy & Notable Deals
European Exit: Norway assets ($4 bn), UK North Sea ($1 bn), French refinery/chemicals (late 2024), exiting high-cost, regulated markets to streamline operations.
Emerging Markets: Sale of Nigeria MPNU ($800 m) to Seplat to exit less profitable or complex jurisdictions.

Asia Onshore Gas Small-scale Thai assets sold to focus on higher-return offshore and unconventional development.

What Worked & What Didn’t?
Successes

Permian Expansion via Pioneer – strategic consolidation, operational synergies, and cost savings ($3 bn/yr). Rapid integration established Exxon as shale powerhouse.

XTO Acquisition (2010) – foundational pivot into U.S. shale gas, increasing production and positioning Exxon in unconventional plays.

Carbon Capture via Denbury (2023) – strengthened Exxon’s CCS portfolio, aligning with evolving regulatory and investor pressures.

Divestitures – consistent capital recycling (e.g. Europe, Nigeria) fueling investment in high-return projects and preserving financial discipline.

Missteps
Legacy asset rationalization—exiting older assets was prudent, but slower than some competitors, raising concerns about timing.

Scale risk – mega-merger with Pioneer increases integration complexity and debt exposure; long-term commodity price risk remains.

Strategic Rationale
ExxonMobil’s M&A strategy hinges on focusing on advantaged assets, divesting underperforming or noncore operations, and diversifying into emerging arenas:

Upstream deepen shale footprint for scale synergies (Pioneer), enhance technology leadership (XTO).

Carbon strategy build CCS capacity via Denbury.

Portfolio optimization free cash from divestitures reallocated to Permian, LNG, Guyana offshore (Whiptail), and advanced chemicals (IPA for semiconductor grade).
These moves support financial discipline, long-term shareholder returns, and energy transition resilience.

Outlook
Integration priority: ensuring smooth assimilation of Pioneer & Denbury operations without cost overruns.

Divestiture momentum continued sales in low-growth regions; proceeds will fund Guyana development, Permian drilling, and LNG expansion.

Transition alignment investment in CCS, chemical diversification, and possibly lithium upstream (non-M&A) suggests shifting capital mix.

Conclusion
From its monumental 1999 merger to the transformative 2024 Pioneer deal, ExxonMobil has leveraged M&A to transition from an integrated oil giant to a strategically focused energy leader. Its approach—acquire scale and expertise in cores, divest noncore assets, and reinvest in next-gen capabilities—has so far paid off, enhancing production capacity and portfolio strength. However, as the energy landscape evolves, bold bets must be matched with meticulous execution and further strategic clarity.

https://mandaequilibrium.com/exxonmobils-strategic-ma-evolution/

Initially, the rebranding news struck me as a desperate move. However, if the new logo is a shift from the iconic Sabre red to black or graphite, it makes some sense. It is either a bold gamble or a deliberate move to align with Google branding. This is especially plausible if there are plans for deep integration into the Google ecosystem. Imagine booking flights directly through Google Maps powered by Sabre. In that context, a minimalist tech focused visual identity is not just a facelift, it is a strategic fit.

Watch the development funding for kaparuk and alpine get significantly reduced in 2027 as COP moves towards an exit from Alaska. Only selling point will be Willow.

CPO seems to just share LinkedIn articles on how AI is coming for our jobs instead of setting any actual strategy. This whole company is a mess.

While we are spinning our wheels.

Who, on the exec side, is responsible for this?

Activist investor Jana Partners has reportedly purchased a stake in payments company Fiserv.

Now, Jana is campaigning for changes to boost Fiserv’s underperforming stock. Their track record in the past:

• Whole Foods Market (2017): Jana took ~9% stake, pushed for improvements; Amazon acquired it later that year (major profit for Jana).
• PetSmart (2014): Jana held ~10%, advocated sale; acquired by BC Partners for $8.7B.
• Pinnacle Foods (2018): Pushed operational changes; sold to Conagra for $8.1B.
• Frontier Communications: Called for strategic review/sale; stock rose significantly; later acquired by Verizon.

New leaders will come up with a aligned strategy to transform this organization. That also means coming up metrics that can be measured consistently and monitored. Next six months are critical for the company. I assume there might be further reductions due to realignment but time will tell.

Today, I just expect them to introduce department leaders and vision & mission for each department.

We all have to contribute tremendously to turn this company around. If we don’t then there is a risk that we wont have the “W” near our house.

What you can do to save yourself from layoff is to make their strategy successful.
You can work hard but working smart and being strategic is more important.

What does DW have against employees operating assets? Are employees really that bad? Seems like they can’t give up operating assets fast enough.

• Guyana operated by not us
• Mozambique will be the same
• why not apply the same model to PNG?
• why not apply the same model to Permian?

CEO Andy Jassy faces criticism for a perceived lack of investor communication and strategic vision, especially concerning the return on heavy AI investments, leading some to call for leadership change.

What 3 things does Meg need to initiate and accomplish in her first 90 days will set the tone for her administration and direction.

That’s all I need to say. No direction. Constant changes, flailing changes. No ability to execute or even plan. Talking about things like RTO but not really enforcing it. Schedules constantly missed. Huge investments in contractors. Hiring but constantly laying off for no reason. Not a single technologist at an SVP or executive level. No results just talk.

It’s just a bunch of clowns. The notion of running a business is gone. It’s just about how much can I stuff in my pocket before the thing goes defunct. Pathetic and sad.

Appears that their plan to move people to Edmonton is about to backfill on a listed company that makes billions of dollars every year which is about to fail. So many people have said no to the move that I’ve heard that we have about 200 job openings that they need to fill with key critical roles empty. Plus they don’t even have the licence to start the Edmonton office build yet so YE27 has not chance. So the lack of results , lack for strategic foresight and impact that the long term bottom line; does this make JW and the board NSI?

As a shareholder, I was incensed that we are paying this je-k to waste our time.
As an employee, I am just embarrassed to see yet another incompetent buddy of the CEO ramble on with no clue and no actionable plan.
He had 45 minutes to inspire. Instead, he went long and ran out of time while he scrawled 10 unbelievably simple and dated management claptrap slogans on a whiteboard as if they were the 10 commandments.
Please wrestle the red marker from his hands and have Dan give him a big hug as he sends him off with a $4M check, just like the last guy.

T-Life is a complete cluster. It’s amazing that any work on that app gets it done. It’s all baling wire and duct tape on the back end. The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.

Approximately 500 NTW from Kevin Lau’s Org are gone tomorrow. A large part of those I’ve been supporting T-Life. Management is going to continue to push these impossible timelines with fewer people. What does that mean? Seven days a week probably at least 12 hours a day, people will be working. Jeff Simon , Kevin Lau, Senthil Velusamy,& Stef Shirey do not care at all. They are operating from a place of fear and would rather throw you under the bus or into the meat grinder that impact their own bonus.

T-Life is dangerously close to a major outage, once that happens whoever’s left is going to wish they were gone. Leadership will freak out and point fingers at everyone put themselves.

There was an issue with T-Life a couple weeks ago. Jeff Simon was up in arms demanding to know who cut corners to get this change out the door? Why were corners cut? Turns out Jeff was the one that signed off on cutting the corners. He knew the risk and when things went sideways, he went off on the people that he told to do the work.

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.

If the company wants to save costs, why retain so many Executives? I’m fairly certain that AI or outside strategy consultants could arrive at the same answers at a fraction of the cost…
Also, why retain businesses that require so many people (Chemicals)? Shouldn’t these businesses be divested asap?