FW: Troubled Firm Staff Prepare For Another Major Job Cull

I'm surprised to see the last paragraph...
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Source: Here is the City

There's clearly a major job cull going to be announced shortly at Lehman Brothers, and it could come before September 15th, the day the firm is due to announce its third-quarter earnings.

The only issue, it seems, is how many employees are likely to be laid-off during the next round (Lehman is thought to have already chopped around 6,000 heads, or approximately 20% of headcount, in the last year or so). The New York Times, which claims to have spoken to an unnamed person 'briefed on the plans', puts the number as high as 1,500. Reuters, quoting an unnamed 'person familiar with the matter', says that the figure is nearer 1,200, while Bloomberg's sources say that as many as 1,000 staff are likely to be culled. Whatever way you look at it, its not looking good. And the smart money is now saying that Lehman is likely to announce a series of cost-cutting initiatives in the next 10 days or so.

Finally, The Financial Times puts the global banking crisis into perspective Friday. According to the newspaper, Merrill Lynch has posted some $14bn in after-tax losses in the last year. When adjusted for inflation, this is said to amount to around 25% of all the profits the firm has made in its 36 years as a public company. Merrill Lynch had the highest ratio of a group of 10 banks, which included Bank of America, Citi, Credit Suisse, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman, Lehman and Morgan Stanley. UBS came in second.