Old timers in Fremont need to get their heads out of the sand and develop a sense of urgency to get out before being forced out. Waves of offshore labor are coming to carpet bomb the high-priced positions still remaining in Fremont. Highly motivated energetic individuals that are half the age and work for one quarter of the price are waiting in the wings in India. It's simple economics for a business with low or no growth. It's not personal. It's just capitalism.
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The rumor is that temporary pay cuts are coming. The level of cut will depend on the level of compensation. The proposal is 5% for those making under $100K, 10% for $100k-$150k, 15% over $150k, and 20% for executives.
And of course, no raises or bonuses this year.
EFI is on the ropes, folks!
EFI is toast. Look at the stock marker tanking and the depression that is coming. When businesses go bankrupt, they certainly don't need to print anything, except maybe one lase big "Going Out of Business Sale" sign. Companies are going to go down the tubes. Devastating for EFI's business. If it were still public, EFII would probably be in single digits. Bye Bye E F I !!!
Last year EFI made $933 million. This year? EFI won't make more than $800-850 million. It was nice working with you all! Coronavirus will k–l EFI outright. Siris pockets are not deep enough to sustain the losses all their companies will generate in 2020, because Siris buys weak companies with major internal problems just like EFI.
Al Zollar over there at Siris will be happy to tell you about all of his luxury vacations though!
Well, EFI was in trouble during one of the greatest economic expansions in the history of the country. Now the inevitable downturn and recession have arrived. No more buildings or real estate to sell. It could be EFI’s Last Stand.
EFI’s leaders are mostly punks and bullies, at least from what I have seen and experienced. Rather than take responsibility for the company’s failings, leadership takes it out on their employees in the form of layoffs in Fremont, microscopic raises for those “lucky enough” to remain, long work days with daily conference calls with the India office both before and after the normal work day. They don’t know how to properly structure engineering projects and teams to deliver on time, so everyone runs around like a chicken with its head cut off to try to make the deadlines, and when things fall short, of course it has nothing to do with the people at the top :) It’s all those people at the bottom who should have been working 14 hour days to make it happen. Let’s motivate them with fear!!!! Hey, it’s another round of...lay-off time!!! Let’s spin the wheel and see where it lands. Amazingly, it looks like the execs have been spared yet again. That’ll learn ‘em!
EFI is full of small time second rate wanna be’s. They honestly believe they are changing the world through digital printing and enabling families to run their own small businesses and achieve the American dream, but really they are enabling companies around the world to print more junk mail, flyers, and other c-ap that will just end up in land fills. The mediocrity starts at the top with execs like Marc Olin, whose mistakes have cost billions of dollars and many jobs, but still somehow maintain employment at millions of dollars per year. Moving down the line, you’ve got substandard leaders whose leadership style is centered around being angry and belittling other people in the room to make it look like they are the smartest one in the room, but who actually know Jack about leading a Silicon Valley technology company. It all leads to frustration and burnout at the lower levels, with people quietly accepting their fate (most common) or getting their butt in gear to get out on their own terms.
This company deserves to just wither away and die. Poorly run, bad internal behaviors, and substandard talent. The corona virus could eat these guys for lunch.
EFI has been Top Heavy (meaning way more managers than lower level employees) for years. So far the massive layoffs have been lower level employees. Which means they'll end up with just a bunch of incompetent managers running the company. How is that going to work? They are letting some really talented people go, whether through layoffs or resigning, and only the really bad management is staying. The guys at Siris need to wake up and realize this otherwise plan for a massive financial loss.
You hit the nail in the head. Marc, Toby, Gary, Vicki have presided over an era of massive decline of efi. The big cash cow was Fiery, but as they could not grow or even hold that revenue, the spin doctors bought company after company to make it look like the company is growing. The only problem: once you run out of cash to buy more companies, then this little game is over and it’s time for layoffs and moving work to India. These are not geniuses in running a quality high tech businesses. It’s smoke and mirrors as the ship keeps on going down. I assume the only reason they are not fired yet is Siri’s thinks they need their expertise, but value have they really demonstrated? Just cutting costs as the business goes down the drain. They have failed efi. Time for then to go and have some pain at the top instead of the bottom getting the brunt of it while they are still paid handsomely. They will never leave voluntarily. They couldn’t possible ever get another job in Silicon Valley that pays as much. These parasites need to go. They came on board with a healthy fiery business and now it is in shambles. Why do they get to stay with hefty paychecks? What happened to “pay for performance” for the execs? If you perform poorly, you should be out and not just blame the workers, the economy, the oem partners, or whatever. Out!!!
Marc Olin gets paid close to $2 million a year, cost shareholders a billion dollars in lost money due to his shoddy accounting work, and yet STILL has a job at EFI. Siris so far doesn't have the good sense to just FIRE the guy.
The "transformation" work being done is nothing more than rearranging the chairs. The same people who failed EFI (Marc Olin, Gaby M, Toby W, Vicki Sam) are in charge of transformation. Their only idea is to close offices and lay people off. Where are the new, affordable, highly competitive products? They don't exist and never will. All the people who could have created those products have been sh– canned or have left! Real transformation is the sudden and righteous termination of Marc, Gaby, Toby, and Vicki. Removing their taint will allow people with real ideas to step forwards. Do it, Siris! WE DARE YOU TO MAKE BOLD MOVES!!!!
Never EVER will you hear about EFI pursuing market share against its competitors. Most EFI employees don't even know who the competitors are, or how small a slice of the pie EFI really has. There might not even be a market to go out and grab.
Siris shoulda bought Apple stock instead of EFII,
Apple in mid April was 197, now 293.
Would have turned $1.7 billion Into $2.5 billion
No chance efi now worth $2.5 billion now
Easy money and a lot less effort than figuring out how to make efi more profitable, pain of layoffs. etc
Siris ended up buying an expensive fixer upper.
Money pit and lots of headaches!
LOL on making more profit on real estates than their printing businesses. I would need to check it out but you might be right. There are some businesses that are worse than digital printing, but owning Silicon Valley real estate isn’t one of them!!!
I heard from someone who still works there that they are going to sell their headquarters building to raise cash, and move to another location and just rent it. I think EFI has made more money on real estate in the last decade than in printing. They should go into the real estate business. Bigger profits there than in digital printing.
Ode to EFI
Oh Fiery, Oh Fiery,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
But now I hear, I need to fear
What comes next for me.
For I am just a worker bee
in the Fiery machinery.
There's millions for execs
Who don't even print duplex.
Only crumbs left for me.
I say "What a pity"
Oh no! This company seems cursed. I need my job for me and my family. Please let it not be me. Lord have mercy! Lord have mercy!
The people at highest risk of being let go are those in their 40s and later. Silicon Valley tends not to be so kind to those in their 40s and higher in middle and lower level positions. Even worse for those that have stayed at a less than stellar company like EFI for an extended period of time of 10, 15, or even 20 years or more. Not only will these people not be able stay at EFI, but will find it very tough to find another nearby company to take them. God bless and may they find peace somewhere after EFI.
Hopefully people can find a way out and get to a new job and a happier place. Unfortunately, the economics of digital printing companies don’t support high Silicon Valley wages. The jobs will move to less expensive locations in the U.S. and to other countries such as India. What has happened at EFI is sad, yet the execs still keep getting their millions. Best wishes to those who will soon be let go.
From CNN a few weeks ago:
HP has struggled in recent quarters. Last month, the company announced it would cut between 7,000 and 9,000 jobs by 2020.
Likewise, Xerox relies on sales of copy machines and printers, mostly to corporations, for the bulk of its profits — and sales in that line of business are shrinking as companies' operations become digitized.
What are the chances that the HP and Xerox printing businesses are in decline and going through layoffs but EFI is somehow in good shape?