Break Up To Make Up: Pfizer, Asset Sales & Layoffs
6 CommentsBy Ed Silverman // September 29th, 2008 // 8:40 am
The drugmaker held a board meeting last week and the outcome is still not certain, but speculation is mounting inside and outside 42nd Street headquarters that various moves are on the way to exceed the goal of cutting $2 billion in costs by the end of this year, which was announced in early 2007.
How might this be accomplished? Divesting any number of products - perhaps lumped together in the form of a package deal or two - and closing down several research areas that could cut untold numbers of jobs. Early last year, Pfizer planned to eliminate 10,000 positions and headcounts have again been examined recently in hopes of saving millions of dollars more in expenses, sources say.
Of course, such moves have been telegraphed - at least, in a general way - for days now. Just last week, Ian Read, who heads Pfizer’s pharma operations, told the crowd at the UBS Life Sciences conference that more cost cutting is under way, suggesting additional job losses (back story). And Wall Street analysts are now speculating about spinoffs and break ups.
“Investors wonder if the share price reflects the value of the assets and the business and, if not, will a breakup unlock that value?” Miller Tabak analyst Les Funtleyder tells Investor’s Business Daily.
XPFE
Given the track record of the past two years, it would be best to replace Pfizer’s BoD, Kindler and Ian Read as they lack a vision, clear strategies, a sense of responsibility and and most importantantly results.
EMC
I spent seven years in Pfizer R&D organization and know a great number of the current executives there. In private conversations, virtually all of them will readily concede that Pfizer is in serious trouble. Most are hoping to stay put until Liptor’s patent expires in two years. The reason many have not left already is because the longer they stay, the more they stand benefit economically regardless of how Pfizer performs. This is because Pfizer’s severance packages and retirement programs for senior executives are heaviliy tilted towards years of service rather than company performance.
Kirby
It’s still obvious that Pfizer has too many employees in all departments.
With Lipitor going generic and a pipe line that looks like a “coffee stirrer”, Pfizer needs to operate on a “skeleton crew”.
Faithful to Pfizer
Pfizer needs to get rid of a lot of middle managers. They just take dollars away from the bottom line. RMs / DMs should be the 1st to go. Reps don’t need this level of “supervision”-as ride alongs with DMs annoy Drs and at the end of the day the perceived incremental benefit of “evaluating sales reps” drive performance down. NOTE TO ALL MANAGERS AND PFE HQ: The Drs don’t want to see managers! PERIOD! Deal with it. The only people they have time to see is their patients-and those special reps that go beyond that dumb pharma code.
Jennifer
Despite the stats, I see lots of high paying pharma jobs posted on employment sites -
http://www.linkedin.com (networking)
http://www.indeed.com (aggregated listings)
http://www.realmatch.com (matches you to jobs)
I see 75K, 100K and 150K jobs
harpy
“…and those special reps that go beyond that dumb pharma code.”
Care to elaborate, Faithful? How do you reward your doctors? Pfizer still allowing hands in the cookie jar? That CIA expires in about 8 months - then back to business as usual? Do tell…