Thread regarding Weatherford International Ltd. layoffs

I am really surprised that nobody from Weatherford is posting here, given the massive layoffs that are in the plans I would expect to see some chatter online. Anyhow, since we do not have a better forum this I’ll spill out what I heard so far. I know that HR is meeting daily, that conference rooms are booked and that I see many HR folks behind closed doors. At the same time We know that it got announced that we are missing 4th quarter profit forecasts and corporate functions and drilling, completion, production, evaluation and intervention areas will be affected by the layoffs. We’d probably see up to 10,000 people leave Weatherford even though we announced yesterday that only 7K will be downsized. At the same time, we all expect that sales will pick up – I personally think it’s unlikely. Anyhow, we are targeting half a billion in savings, for this to happen we’d have to cut somewhere between 5K and 10K employees, depending on geographies, skills, etc. I personally think that the corporate will be hit the hardest with the IT group taking the brunt of the layoffs (from the % of workforce perspective). Now, we derive 50% of our revenue from the USA, so you should expect that at least 75% of the cuts will be here in the States as we get paid more and it’s all about numbers right now. So, get ready – it’s going to be bumpy few months over here and remember, if you are in Corporate or IT make sure to get that resume ready and do some calculation around severance and your existing savings.