Conference tnpubs::xwell

    It's interesting that people from both sides of the Unisys merger would
    be drawn into Honeywell Bull.  Having come into HIS from the GE side, I
    always felt some kinship with the Univac crowd.  I can easily understand
    fleeing a Burroughs-controlled Unisys for a place more like "home". 
    
    I'm wondering what attracts the Burroughs bunch.  A challenge, perhaps?
    
    If the layoff rumor is even halfway accurate, I'm glad NOT to be part
    of it.  Unless Honeywell Bull has been quietly fattening its staff,
    such a cut should include a fair amount of bone.  I thought Honeywell
    had dropped below "critical mass" by the time I left early in 1987. 

    I heard that Bill Gould missed a release by 5 months and has been
    "shuffled" to the side as "QA software" or some such thing. 
    
    Anyone know who the top dog (chief bull?) is now?
    
    Krishna
    

    My understanding is that Gould has been demoted to Senior Director
    and Dave DeVoy has taken his place, and also has responsibility
    for DSCO in addition to what Gould had.  There is also speculation
    that Gould will be let go in the upcoming layoff.
    
    Mark
    

    My current understanding is that Bill Gould has left the company
    and is now working at Apollo.  I don't know what his position is
    there.  Bob Daley and Bill Cunningham, among others are also working
    at Apollo now.
    
    Mark
    

    I understand that Jacque Bouvard has been laid off (NOT the golden
    handshake/early retirement bit, but a layoff). Hee hee hee
    I also understand he is marketing himself as an AI consultant. 
    
    AI????
    
    Krishna
    

    Re .5:
    
    As I heard the story, Jacque had gone to Bull and asked them to
    set his AI group up as a separate enterprise.  Bull declined.
    When the layoff hit, the whole group was let go.  I guess that's
    the definitive answer to his earlier request.

    Yes, boys and girls, changes inside (and outside) Concord Road happened
    with frequency over the last several months.
    	
    	Gould left for Apollo and Devoy took over. A lot of old-timers were
        laid-off in Feb (Bouvard,Rocke,...)
    	
        Just about all of the OPUS crowd are gonzo (to OSF and/or Apollo).
    	
        Claude Gouin (sic) from France now heads software and Brian
        somethingorother from the UK heads hardware.
    
        C&SP reports to Devoy as does the remnants of DS&CO (the rest are
        hacking away at the "Austrailian" project).
    
    	DeFalco left, Dana Moore is on staff and, in general, the old
        hardware crowd has been de-fanged.
    
        The software crowd (what's left) is spread around doing maintenance
        and/or learning UNIX and taking courses on the MIPS RISC chip
        interior decor (skull the future out yourselves).  
    
    General feeling is that they (East Coast) will be a support crew for
    French products while Phoenix continues to support the old-6000 and the
    NEC boxes.
    
    But things aren't all bad. Why just last week, one of my old comrades
    said "Things are sure better here than at Wang!".
    

    After weekly layoffs of 20-30 people each since the start of the year,
    it appears Bull's done a bigger one.  The rumors were flying of 120+
    people laid off yesterday.  The names I heard (which I've decided NOT
    to list here, since they're third-hand and also deserve a bit of
    privacy) included a number of well-regarded long-time engineers.
    
    It looks as though Bull has now cut through the bone and into the
    marrow.  Say a prayer for both the victims and survivors.

    It's no rumor..they decimated the old hardware group and also cut into
    the software groups as well as marketing and planning. Also most new
    product planning now will be done in France.....
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Here in the UK Bull have laid off at least 120 Field service personnel. In the 
nearest location to me (LEEDS) where I used to work 4 out of 6 of the Field 
service managers have gone. they have also laid off quite a number 
(unknown .. > 50 ?)  development staff in the south of the country.
They have also laid off a large number of product marketing people.

They have also been very harsh with the severence pay.

Previously in the UK Honeywell severence was 1 month for each year served!

Bull have given the absolute legal minimum.

I have been told this by a number of friends who still work there.
Apparently the UK personnel director rang each person that was laid off; he
invited them to a meeting to be told there fate. People apparently tried
to delay the inevitable by not answering telephones!!

What happened to the friendly approach that Honeywell had??

I've a feeling the good days are well and truly gone now that
the French are in control.

Sad.

Malcolm

    I have been hearing the names of some those laid off in the current
    round (about 60+ since Jan!) - names like John Thaxter, Jim Lemmon
    etc.,
    
    I am sad and shocked. these are people who spent over 15 - 20 years,
    maybe their entire professional career with Honeywell! They are people
    I knew when I joined the big red H! I remember them as people who might
    have contributed a lot to the original growth of Honeywell!
    
    I wonder how much success they will have finding a new job, if they
    should need one! I do not know of their current usefulness or
    relevance to Bull (I also heard they have been hiring young,
    UNIX-conversant softwarians!). There appears to be a callousness in the
    move that shocks me.
    
    How very, very sad! 
    
    Krishna
                        

    They are hiring new grad and/or unix types to save money and try to get
    into the unix business. Basically Pampell is stocking his lair with new
    people and keeping those old people who either are currently useful to
    the new business or, in the case of management, will "do what they are
    told".
    
    Seems ruthless but the behavior is typical in a "colony" setting (in
    this case, the US is a colony of France).
    

    I just received some more input from people still left at dear old 300
    Concord Road. Seems they have been and will continue to run small body
    count weekly layoffs to avoid the press exposure of a big-bang.
    
    Longevity and loyal service are now passe' concepts; you must be useful
    to them now or you are history.
    

    
    I hate to see this file die down.
    
    So, here goes...
    
    I heard that BULL was planning a layoff of 3000 people. I thought that
    in the ole' H part in the U.S. there was at best 2000 odd people. I know 
    that BULL owns ZENITH, so maybe there are some layoffs there, but even so...
    
    
    Does this mean the end of the end of the H in BULL HN?
    
    krishna

    Re .14:
    
>   I heard that BULL was planning a layoff of 3000 people. I thought that
>   in the ole' H part in the U.S. there was at best 2000 odd people.
    
    I've got to believe that there are still the better part of 20K people
    left working for Bull Worldwide Information Systems.  There were once
    about twice that in Honeywell Information Systems, Inc.  Bull HN is NOT
    a public corporation, so we don't hear the same kinds of statistics for
    it that we did for Honeywell/HIS.
    
    3000 people would be a painful layoff, in any event.  It wouldn't
    surprise me if Zenith Data Systems was hit with part of that.

    I just got some mail from an insider and the body count is 5000
    world-wide, evenly split between Europe and USA. The impact on the old
    Boston group is expected to be a 20% across-the-board hit.
    

I received the following information by mail -

 
    Bull update follows:
 
The following plants will close:
    Newhouse
    Louveciennes
    June Les Tours
    Reduce Lawrence by 50%
    Chandler, AZ
 
Workforce Reduction:
    Bull US - 2500 people
    Bull europe - 2500 people
 
Workforce reduction in US will be handled in the following way:
    FIPS package
    Voluntary LOA
    LOA
 
Number Split:
    Outside US (Aust. & Canada) - 500
    R & D - 200
    Factory - 375
    US Marketing - 800
    Corpriate US - 20%
 
Roland Pampel now in charge of all R & D worldwide
 

<><><><><><><><>  T h e   V O G O N   N e w s   S e r v i c e  <><><><><><><><>

 Edition : 2193               Monday 12-Nov-1990            Circulation :  8447 


VNS COMPUTER NEWS:                            [Tracy Talcott, VNS Computer Desk]
==================                            [Nashua, NH, USA                 ]

 Bull HN Information Systems - To lay off 1,000 in Massachusetts
	{The Boston Globe, 9-Nov-90, p. 77}
   The layoffs, a workforce reduction of 27%, will occur by the end of the
 year. Hardest-hit will be the staff at the company's brand-new Billerica
 headquarters, where cuts in nearly every department will eliminate almost 400
 mostly white-collar jobs. Workers will also be let go in Brighton, Lawrence
 and Newton. The cutbacks are part of a broad restructuring announced
 yesterday by Groupe Bull, which also includes Zenith Data Systems and Bull
 S.A. Groupe Bull plans to cut a total of 5,000 jobs, or 10% of its work force,
 and sell or close six plants, none in Massachusetts. Bull HN had 1,200 layoffs
 in 1989 and 800 earlier this year. Those cuts were partially offset by the
 hiring of 1,000 people with skills in growth areas such as Unix and
 networking. Groupe Bull executives said the steps were necessary to reverse
 losses that will exceed $500 million this year. Profits are being squeezed by
 the sale of "open systems," which carry lower profit margins. Roland Pampel,
 chairman of Bull HN, said users were switching to open systems faster than the
 company had planned, causing a 5% drop in profit margins. That left costs too
 high, forcing it to accelerate plans to downsize the company and increase
 manufacturing efficiency. The reorganization includes placing Bull HN's
 Italian and British operations under the control of Bull SA, to take advantage
 of the single European market in 1992. Bull HN will take control of all
 research and development, as well as Bull SA's Asian operations. In the U.S.,
 initial reductions will be attempted through early retirements and voluntary
 severances, a Bull HN spokesman said. Workers 58 years of age or older with 20
 years of service will be eligible for early retirement. In addition to their
 regular pension, they will receive a payment based on length of service.
 Workers who leave voluntarily and those dismissed will be notified two weeks
 in advance and get two weeks' severance pay and medical benefits. Those with
 more than three years of service will receive one week's base salary and
 extended medical coverage for each year of service above three years.
 Counseling, resume writing and other outplacement services will also be
 offered. In Massachusetts, about 400 of the 2,050 corporate jobs in Billerica
 will be lost. At the company's Brighton manufacturing plant, about 100 workers
 out of 575 will be cut, mostly middle managers. At the Lawrence plant, 150 out
 of 650 jobs will disappear, including some assembly workers.

	{The Wall Street Journal, 9-Nov-90, p. A6}
   Bull said it would close seven of its 13 factories by the end of 1992 and
 eliminate 5,000 jobs over the next 14 months. Nearly half the job cuts are
 planned for the U.S., Canada and Mexico, where Bull had been growing through
 acquisitions. Although some analysts approved the measures, many were
 skeptical, saying the recovery program looks like too little, too late. Bull
 said it would retain four computer manufacturing sites: Boston, St. Joseph,
 Mich., Angers, France, and Villeneuve d'Ascq, France, and two manufacturing
 sites for peripheral equipment in France and Italy. The seven remaining
 factories, which are presumably the ones to be closed, are in Arizona,
 Scotland, Australia and four French cities. Bull said it would initiate a
 broad belt-tightening program aimed at producing 10% cost savings per year.
 Nevertheless, it said it would boost spending on training and on research and
 development, due in large part to French government subsidies. For example,
 Bull said it will enter a multiyear, 11 billion franc contract with the French
 government aimed at unifying Bull's operating systems. Partly because of its
 acquisitions - notably Zenith Electronics Corp.'s microcomputer business and
 Honeywell's troubled computer business - Bull companies today use at least two
 different operating systems, which causes compatibility problems.

    They just did in 400 more Billerica types.
    This time they zapped the hardware group responsible for busting their
    buns to release MRX-A. 
    Big names include Ming Miu (that right, a Fellow), Dick Brown, Bob
    Johnson, and others.
    
    Now even the UN*X software types are getting nervous.
    
    Way to go, Dave D.