When is the merger supposed to officially happen? Will the majority of remaining cuts happen ASAP or will it happen in March after the rush? Will the majority come from Cengage or McGraw?
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We were told from day one there would be 10% minimum layoffs and between the two companies that would be at LEAST one THOUSAND people. The layoffs last fall were for cost cutting after missing revenue numbers. MCGraw just laid off a bunch of people (am seeing numbers ranging from 100-600). The ride is going to be really rough.
I don’t think anyone will truly be the winner here. Both companies will have many people cut.
"...any preference for MG employees would likely be because Michael Hansen lives in NY and wants to center things there."
This is the key. MH spent millions on an office in NYC that was useful only to him. He has always looked down on the midwestern offices and I expect most of them to go.
Not sure why people think McGraw is the winner here. McGraw’s CEO was fired and is to be replaced by Cengage’s. The name change is based on McGraw’s better name recognition built long ago, not on any wide spread superiority of McGraw’s current products or employees. It is reportedly a merger of equals and any preference for MG employees would likely be because Michael Hansen lives in NY and wants to center things there.
I don't understand the people who say there will be no cuts. They were transparent and explicit that they need to drive $300M of cost out of the business, and 2/3 of that will come from people. That was the story day 1 of the merger, and nothing has changed there.
Lost of people from both sides are going to lose their jobs, especially in the shared services.
@12SXMhdG-1qcc Unlikely? Based on what?
Q1 of what year? It’s unlikely this merger will happen, if it does, it will be Q3 or Q4, and MH will not be CEO.
That’t at odds with what MH himself said. Didn’t they say 10% at one point? RE the timeline, I heard that at the NGL holiday lunch they said the merger timeline has moved and they’re looking at Q1
@12SXMhdG-abn You are wrong, the cuts will mostly be on the Cengage side since Cengage is the biggest loser / liability in this deal. You forget the fall layoffs were unexpected, meaning the losers at the top were so out of touch they didn't expect to see such a disaster so soon which is putting any merger at risk since it's clearly not complementary. If McGraw were smart they would postpone the merger until Cengage is worth nothing and completely paralyzed then take all the market share naturally without the massive hassle with a merger.
I ran into a District Inside Sales Manager for Cengage Learning this weekend. He told me around 40 people in their department was let go.
Make no mistake about it, there will be cuts. Cengage is becoming McGraw Hill, so cuts will undoubtedly come mostly from the Cengage side. Neither company is doing well financially and it’s going to be Michaels job to make them profitable, soooo how does that become reality one might ask. By massive layoffs and trimming down less profitable product lines, of course. The question I have is how will they use CU? Can’t imagine McGraw devaluing their products by making them available that way.
I don't think there will be many cuts. This is being touted as a complementary merger. Michael is going to be CEO, so take a guess where the majority of the cuts will be....it won't be from Cengage.