Stan, a snip from Fleckenstein's column of interest to AMAT holders.
Found here (a fee site, registration required) grantsinvestor.com
Sleight Of Golden Handshake Now for comments by a reader in the tech trenches: "My mom was a director at AMAT's personnel department in Santa Clara, California. She told me AMAT was paying people to leave and keep quiet when they were announcing 'no layoffs.' Shortly thereafter, AMAT started whacking large chunks of their payroll. She stated that this was a common practice in tech land, and what the execs were saying for public consumption was not what was being done within the corporation. [This has been a long-running "open secret."] When I asked her about the same practice at CSCO, she said that she could not fathom how that is not happening, given what the rest of the industry is doing. In the interest of full disclosure, she was part of the December layoffs, where Human Resources really got whacked. You need HR people to rehire for the impending boom in the business, although if there is no boom, there is no need for HR people to service all the new or returning employees. She got a monster severance and a new job at [XYZ institution's] HR department, where she will make more in salary than at AMAT. She was at AMAT for the options. At 91, and 55, and 46, they did not do very well." |
