Run for cover. Both Private Equity firms are sucking blood out of companies, they load them with debt. Layoffs will be rampant. Just search this layoffs.com website for Cerberus or 3G Capital you'll see hundreds of messages - people hate private equity, they leave scorched earth, there is only a handful of them but they go after cash flow, the best way to free up some cash flow is to cut people. We are, well, FCKED!
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Full circle. The takeover chatter has gone from Cerberus and other private equity players, to Publix, to Kroger, to Costco, to HEB, and now it's back to Cerberus. And every time it turns out to be just talk. Why? Because if I'm buying a business to improve results, there has to be a solid structure already in place unless I'm just buying the brand name after the ship has sunk. WFM was a regional company with more ambition than sense. They bought up what? 15 or so companies in far-flung areas (even the bloody UK!) with no plan for integrating logistics, technology, operations. Whoever was there at the time at these firms became "regional leaders" at the new company with no real qualifications in my opinion. The regions behaved like franchisees who were out of control with regard to pricing, training, technology and promotions. (That's how Whole Paycheck came about -- regions priced things as high as possible with no regard to the greater good or long-term effect on our brand.) Even basic operations like having a common intranet or using the same organizational operating structure are/were totally different. TMs still can't learn anything from each other because if you go from Boise to Boston it's an entirely different company. Bottom line: You can't just run around the world sprinkling money, pixie dust, a logo, magazine articles and book tours and duct tape it together with 3-year Tribal Gatherings featuring singalongs, campfires and slogans, then out of the oven pops an integrated global business. Cerberus would be nuts to take on this unplanned global sprawing hot mess. My prediction: No sale. Not until the petty regional dictators and all their far-flung bureaucratic overseers are FIRED and operations consolidated into one cohesive business that employs consistent technical and operational standards. Only one little sticky wicket: You can't depend on the same group of self-serving idiots who created the mess to fix it!
CERBERUS
NOOOOO
This is bas
How do workers survive these environments??? Buddha help us!
https://www.thelayoff.com/search.php?q=3G
https://www.thelayoff.com/search.php?q=cerberus
This is a response to the post that refers to CNN's speculation that Cerberus or 3G Cap might be buying us - see @EUqKNL1