CEO, “we need to optimize our operations, which is our second priority. This is more than just process optimization. We need to optimize the way we are organized, our product portfolio, our supply chain, our financial model.” Aka we need to layoff some people, drop some products, change some suppliers and change the way we book revenue, iow cook the books so you don’t understand the compare. Plus at the same time we are buying back a billion in shares to satisfy our largest shareholders (big surprise), and will run people into the ground to get the cash to do it. Why is “smoke and mirrors” always so painful for people on the front lines?
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Stock "buybacks" are a red flag. Best definition I found is from Forbes - February 28, 2017:
"American companies have been spending wildly lately, but that cash isn’t being used for R&D or innovation. Rather, it’s being spent to buy up gobs of company stock.
In November 2016, Goldman Sachs’ chief equity strategist David Kostin estimated that, in 2017, S&P 500 companies will spend $780 billion on buybacks — a new record.
That’s crazy.
For most of the 20th century, stock buybacks were deemed illegal because they were thought to be a form of stock market manipulation. But since 1982, when they were essentially legalized by the SEC, buybacks have become perhaps the most popular financial engineering tool in the C-Suite tool shed. And it’s obvious why Wall Street loves them: Buying back company stock can inflate a company’s share price and boost its earnings per share — metrics that often guide lucrative executive bonuses.
As Reuters wrote recently, “Stock buybacks enrich the bosses even when business sags.”
Next step to look for are members of the Board of Directors, and top fat cats in Xerox to "exercise their stock options" in advance of the sale of a particular Xerox component or stock market crash
I'll help with the books.