Thread regarding Xerox Corp. layoffs

Thanks chatgpt

@fk I'm the OP and agree with your comments 100%. My OP was not intended to push any narrative around any aspect of the company, its situation, or route of travel.

The real underlying difficulty the recovery has is, I believe, actually who delivers it?

Years of low wages, way below market rates, freezes, and in many cases decisions that just appear to be counter to the intended direction of travel have pushed many people out of the business. Or even worse, into just being a number waiting for their time to be called.

A lot of those people will have been just the people Xerox needs to deliver its future state.

It will be interesting to see how Xerox tackles this issue, and it will have to tackle it, or it simply won't succeed.

People are and will remain the beating heart of any business, and Xerox has driven its people probably too hard for too many years. As it shapes its future and communicates what that looks like, its plans to ensure that employees are not left behind again will be vital.

Ultimately, it is this aspect which may prove to be the company's Achilles' heel.

I get the instinct to say "just deliver and don't ask questions," but let's not pretend accountability only flows one direction.

Employees have been asked to absorb years of frozen pay and no cost-of-living increases while inflation quietly cuts real wages every year that pay doesn't move.

Meanwhile, here's what leadership compensation has actually looked like over that same stretch, straight from SEC proxy filings:
When Bandrowczak was named CEO in August 2022, his contract set an annual base salary of $1 million with an annual bonus targeted at 150% of that base salary, plus a one-time restricted stock grant worth $3 million vesting over three years, and a long-term incentive award worth $7.5 million in the 2023 grant cycle, with more grants possible in future years at the board's discretion. Xerox + 2
In 2023, his total compensation was $12,844,686. ERI
In 2024, total compensation rose to $14,320,642, made up of $1,066,667 in salary, $1,269,333 in bonus, $11,879,791 in stock awards, and $104,851 in other compensation. Salary.com
Xerox itself disclosed that CEO pay was 260 times the median employee's pay for fiscal year 2024. AFL-CIO

That's not disinformation. That's the company's own numbers.
So when we're told to "focus on delivering" and not question the math, it's worth asking: whose sacrifice has actually kept this company running the last few years? Most of the CEO's pay is in stock awards, not base salary, so supporters will say it's tied to performance and shareholder alignment. Fair enough. But that argument doesn't explain years of flat wages for the people actually doing the work while total pay at the top climbed into eight figures and outpaced the median employee 260 to 1.

Wanting Xerox to survive and beat the competition isn't in conflict with saying: the cost of survival hasn't been shared evenly, and that's worth talking about here, not just with a manager who doesn't set exec pay or an HR rep repeating the same line back to you.

If you just compare company analysis of how Fujifilm is expanding in the same market in the US vs what Xerox is doing you see the fundamental issues.
Fujifilm just partnered with Impact West to expand operations to grow. They are quietly eating into Xerox's market with high quality machines, compare that to Lexmark machines.
So yes, this management group is pulling out every trick in the book to survive, but they no longer have the quality design people of a true engineering company because they never thought they were important.
The management went down the wrong road of grabbing quick money, and are doing it currently with no regard to building a working business model. It is who they are, they have dug a deep hole.

@f7 Starteepoo has a name for 'deep value' or 'special situation' investing. Further, they are widely viewed as a 'supportive investor' able to spot the floor (in stock) and rapidly assess the planning the business has in place to turn around as well as directly support leadership in that turnaround. Any investor such as these will be highly adept at understanding and managing the risks, both negative and positive of their planned investment. They aren't known to be strippers, so while many on here may seek to compare them to the likes of Ichan, they appear to be, and we hope they turn out to be, significantly different. I think this needs to be looked at realistically in the space of the current world economy. While many will hark back to the heady days of +$68 per share, it has to be accepted that those days are gone. If they bought at around $2.37 and the stock 'only' climbs to $5.00, that's still a good return on the investment. Please note I'm not suggesting that $5 as any form of published or secret target; it isn't, it's a number plucked from thin air to illustrate the point, and that point is stock doesn't have to climb to double digits to make an investment good; a high % climb across a LOT of stock will do that. Many sources reference their work with Warner Brothers, resulting in an 81.5% return over an 18month hold. However, each business is different, and in this case, very different, and I guess you'd also find times it hasn't worked.

@eh Response to "debt cliffs", spot on.
I am inclined to agree and I am guessing Starteepo is fairly smart or they would not be in the position they are in by being bad decision makers.
If they are buying all this stock, they must know something and I will go with that.
We need to find opportunity within uncertainty and move forward together.
If you are not willing to do this, hit the bricks.

@az Please do some serious self-reflection.

Bingo. If you've left Xerox, and you're on here b-tching and trying to get others to quit, take a long hard look in your mirror. You might see something that needs to change.

@b8 There are 2 major 'debt cliffs' coming down the track in 28 ($649m) and 29 ($500m). SAP suggests that Xerox will have sufficient funds through 27. Moody's gives a Caa2 rating, indicating a 50% - 60% probability of default within a 3-year period. So if you're a gambling type, you may, in fact, have Xerox on evens (ish) to either succeed or fail depending if your a pessimist or an optimist. Xerox has and continues to use a raft of measures to manage liquidity and debt timelines, including: The TPG JV, Warrant Exchanges and Debt Buy Backs. The bottom line is these are not designed to save the business; they are intended to enable the business to survive while the reinvention takes place, which is intended to fundamentally change the balance of the business revenue away from the declining print sector to other diversified sectors such as 'IT'. This also links to the tactics used to hold some senior leaders through this time period, as the execution of the strategy is, let's face it, vital and will require leadership consistency.

@az Genuinely can't see how I licked any boots? Happy you expand your comment to point that out?

@cm ........... Yes. But please be aware I did make the note that it might take time and may be incorrect- yes, I get the irony. My point was the answer to most employee questions lies within the business functions, not on a site like this.

@c0 Yep, those 'Gauls'- they really are what's the term you used.............. unmitigated. Guessing you mean you can't believe, and don't accept, I had the 'gall' to challenge the narrative or use the site to make a comment that you didn't agree with. Taking my own advice, I'll su-k that up.

@cv Hi, Bot here just to prove the point I'm making: you've stated something untrue. Well done.

@c0 - you just proved my point. If you don’t know the difference between “Gaul” and “gall” then you’re one of the ex m@rons who were let go for good reason. I mean…unless your comeback was trying to offend ancient Celtic tribes? Try harder and go make me my burrito supreme.

You’re delusional

Another sanctimonious ai bot post…Increase the Dividend!

Major part of the problem :just ask your manager or HR … do you really think you’ll
get an answer ?

Now we all left Xerox and are working at Taco Bell eh?

Don’t bet the farm on that one. What a conceited attitude to think we were all the problem. And yet you waltz on here telling us we are all wrong and don’t get it.

The unmitigated Gaul is incredible.

@ba
Xerox is not the first, nor will they be the last to have a monumental mountain of debt to climb. Eventually, it just becomes to big to concur and the house of cards will either crumble or get reorganized.
It took a long time for the debt to get this big, unfortunately, the time Xerox needs to reduce the debt is not going to be enough.
All of the financial cleverness will eventually run out.
Sorry for all of you.

@op - Don't bother trying to talk sense into the jaded ex lovers. They will forever be creepers in between breaks on their Taco Bell shifts. The "wahhh xerox didn't love me" crowd is always in full effect. Most of them were let go for good reason but they refuse to come to terms with it. Now they will spend their days bitter and bored. It's amazing that some posters on here were let go over 5 years ago and they still post the same garbage daily. Sad life.

@b5 I am fairly new to this forum as I have a son who works for X.
I have looked at all the data (that is available) and you can do all the ratio analysis, risk modeling, regression analysis as well as look at depreciation schedules and it all comes down to the same thing....debt.
Waging your future with your intellectual property is basically "swinging for the fences".
A desperate move at a desperate time.
Good luck to all, but money will run out and 2027 and could most likely be a new chapter for X.

There is a YouTube channel called "Trade Archives" and it shows the downfall of many companies through the decades. Companies that are in downfall have very similar patterns. Is it possible that there could be a turn around for Xerox, yes, miracles do happen. But a realistic look at the finacials show that the steps to get there are not being taken. The operating cash is shrinking at an alarming rate, and the hope of a conglomerate take over has been all but eliminated with the debt they have acquired.
Other companies in this sector have not been this poorly managed, and don't have bankruptcy knocking on their door. This management has been so cocky to insult HP and Fuji Film with no regard to proper business, they are g-n slingers and gamblers.
It is ironic they are outsourcing smart engineers to Asian countries, when Xerox would be better off outsourcing MANAGEMENT to another country. The Japanese are managing their companies better in the same declining sector. Look up the letter that HP management wrote about Xerox's attempted purchase of them, it explained a lot.
If you see them getting out of this without bankruptcy you are truly an optimistic person. Do I want to see Xerox dissappear? Absolutely not. But the math is very difficult to ignore.

@OP

The real problem is the preponderance of bootlickers like you on payroll.

Hardly part of the problem. When Xerox and management does take advice from people and they are set on doing there own way. And then they fail. I’m not taking blame for that. I left and couldn’t be happier. Trying to get the rest of you Bozos outta there. That’s my mistake…