Layoffs Watch '07: MS

Posted by rumor, Oct 15, 2007 9:17PM

dealbreaker: a tip for you.

i have also heard rumors of layoffs of 1st-year analysts at ws banks. thats gotta be bad if they're cutting the people they barely pay... right? please investigate

rumor 1: Deutsche axed all/most of their first year analyst class and gave them $55K for their troubles.

rumor 2: JPM is axing some of their first years in IB lev. fin group. A "test" was administered to the group recently.

rumor 3: GS told firstyears to go home for 4 months without pay or else go work in operations.

rumor 4: MER is keeping half of their first year analysts and send rest to operations.

Posted by rumor=douche, Oct 15, 2007 11:18PM

1: wrong
2: wrong
3: wrong
4: right

Posted by WTF, Oct 16, 2007 12:48AM

hey "rumor=douche", rumor was trying to help, dont be such a fag... how the fuck do you know he's wrong anyway, u work at all 4 banks? so shut the fuck up and lets get to the bottom of this

Posted by , Oct 16, 2007 7:35AM

GS fired some senior traders last week and MS is firing today (tue).

Posted by IB lifer, Oct 16, 2007 7:35AM

I'm glad all those pesky 1st and 2nd year kids are getting the ax. It protects my bonus, shows I'm tough to the competition and shareholders, and who cares if some kid has a big rent he took on just to work here? The market has to work, and they're the proverbial grease. Better luck in Iowa kiddo.

Posted by , Oct 16, 2007 7:37AM

@Chris unprecedented opportunity to trade and invest in undervalued securities; bollocks to launch new deals. So they're not going to take the IB analysts and try to make them traders, more junior traders at this juncture would be useless. Just need more back office humps temporarily to clear all the trades.

@rumor its not so much a matter of what these kids get payed as often there is a pressure for more senior managers to be seen as "doing something"

Posted by curious, Oct 16, 2007 8:02AM

dear anon,

your comments would have more weight and impact if you learned to spell. 'payed' applies to ropes, not salaries.

Posted by observation, Oct 16, 2007 8:27AM

ur a schmuck

Posted by , Oct 16, 2007 8:28AM

omg i misspelled a word, holy crap well never mind any of it then

Posted by Chris, Oct 16, 2007 8:52AM

@Anon 7:37AM -

I guess I wasn't conveying my sarcasm in my "unprecedented opportunities" commentary. By "investing in under-valued securities", are you sayign I should buy low, and sell high? How about a great opportunity to sell over-valued assets?

Would you say that now is as good a time to pick out under-valued securities as, say, March 2003?

Come on now...let's not get too bullish here.

Posted by test, Oct 16, 2007 10:23AM

this is a test

Posted by CL, Oct 16, 2007 10:53AM

Chris, you clearly think stocks are the only asset class out there. Perhaps you have heard of fixed income and derivatives? Combined they are a >$500 trillion market.

I guess you think it's just absurd that almost every serious ishop on the planet is gearing up a distressed investments fund right now. There's a lot of value out there of you are willing to look beyond the FOX 50 Index

Posted by , Oct 16, 2007 10:58AM

I think what chris here fails to realize is how quickly opportunities are snatched up by the market. To wit: Goldman made what, $400 million from its bailout of its own fund? In one month? Great opportunity, now it's gone, you missed it.

Posted by Chris, Oct 16, 2007 2:13PM

@CL, @Anonymous -

There is not a single thing you mentioned that I don't understand - trust me. I'm sure we're all students of the global markets here.

Whichever anonymous guy who first responded to what I wrote clearly missed the sarcasm, and my mistake was actually responding.

I'll leave it all at that.

Posted by rumor, Oct 16, 2007 9:25PM

Source at MS say at least no equity traders laid off today. (Knows nothing about prop/FID).

Posted by Ding Dong, Oct 17, 2007 11:37AM

MS laid off 300 today.

Posted by MER, Oct 17, 2007 12:34PM

MER did not send any of its class to operations, unlike GS.

Posted by Well Connected, Oct 17, 2007 2:16PM

1. JP Morgan did axe some analysts in its leveraged finance group.
2. Goldman did send some of its Sales & Trading analyst class to operations.
3. Bank of America did offer 55k to analysts that accepted offers there to hold off working for another year.
4. DB did axe some of its 1st year analysts class, based on their performance in training on tests.
5. Merrill did not send any of its Global Markets analyst to operations and has not announced any layoffs as of yet.
6. Credit Suisse did lay off a number of people in its Fixed Income group including 2nd year but not 1st year analysts.

Posted by , Oct 17, 2007 2:27PM

S&T analysts were ALWAYS in operations. Nothing has changed.