Well, I got up a little early and was absolutely shocked to see this news report: Citigroup want’s to cut back on its workforce by 53,000 employees! As if our employment numbers weren’t crappy enough, another 53,000 people need to be thrown back into trying to find a job and going through that whole process all over again.
Damn.
All cuts that occur in a company are obviously a way to try and increase profits to make the numbers look squeeky clean for investors. Vikram Pandit, a Chief Executive at Citigroup, made the decision to try and restore profitability (duh) and help their stock price. Last week, Citigroups stock fell into single-digits for the FIRST TIME since the company was created in 1998. Whoa.
Bad debts. Crappy loans. People don’t want to (or can’t) pay back Citi banks. That’s the reason why they had to do this. Sound familiar? Yeah… sort of the talk around town for the last 3 months. Will other banks follow? My gut says yes, but I’d like it to be a no. Was just about to go to sleep, but curious to see how Citigroup opens up this morning… especially since the news is quickly getting around the web at light-speed.
Shares of Citigroup have fallen 68 percent this year, leaving the bank with a market value of only $51.9 billion, barely twice the $25 billion of capital it received from the U.S. Treasury Department’s bank bailout plan.
December 6th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Citi CEO Vikram Pandit will address employees today about the bank’s reduction in workforce, reports CNBC’s Charlie Gasp… G20 Plan Enough? As world leaders at the G20 meeting agree on further coordinated action in an attempt