Mark your calendars for the week of Nov. 3

[JaneQP]

http://www.democratandchronicle.com...ESS/308090025/Bausch-Lomb-WARN-notice-Valeant

A quote from the article reads:
The revised numbers came in the form of a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification that companies are required to send to the state Labor Department in the event of 250 layoffs or more at large companies.

Valeant, based in Montreal, informed the state that the 106 layoffs at the downtown site will begin on Nov. 3 and extend through the end of the year.

Why does this remind me of the scene in The Devil Wears Prada when Miranda Priestly's assistant warns everyone to, "Gird your loins" upon her arrival into the office?

Employee benefits will change 12/31, for those still employed. Please plan ahead, and keep an eye on those WARN notices for NY and elsewhere.

 

[Anonymous]

They are not releasing accurate numbers of layoffs. Don't think they ever will. WARN was only triggered in Rochester. We were told WARN is site-specific and that Rochester was the only place where it triggered.

 

[JaneQP]

True, I thought of that after I posted. Places with layoffs that don't total 250 employees don't have to be reported to the state through the WARN notices. So, in many locations, a significant layoff could happen but it wouldn't be announced through that channel. Well, in any case, be prepared. That's all I'm saying. And be informed about the week of November 3. I'm sure it will be a week to remember.

Today I remembered a quote: May you live in interesting times. B&L employees most certainly are. It's unusual to get to witness this type of transformation, or what seems like downfall, of a major company that more or less stood on its own for more than a century and a half. I wonder what will happen to B&L without all these departments and staff. It seems it will be a cash cow for VaLEANt for a while, but then other technologies will surpass B&L and other companies with R&D will make money from new innovations. I never went to business school, but this doesn't seem like an astute long-term plan.

 

[Anonymous]

like it or not, the basic strategy is sound. R&D has been proven to be a terrible investment as of late. The era of billion dollar blockbuster drugs is over. Every pharma company is scrambling to develop niche product orphan drugs. Big expense for little payoff. The place I don't like about valeant is that it seems they almost don't even want to compete in the segments they purchase. If you purchase a company and roll the products into your bags, at least equip the sales reps and the organization to compete in that arena.

What it appears to me is that they buy dying organizations or dying brands and try to squeeze as much juice out of the pulp as possible. That is what's sad to me. If a major pharma company saw the value in B&L and wanted to really compete in the eye care segment, they could have taken a run at Alcon... valeant will never be a blip on alcons radar across any segment now. Then again maybe valeant has it right. look at merck that just folded up shop on ophthalmics and liquidated everyone.