ntl budget cutbacks

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by ianathuth

I wouldn't get too carried away with what seems at first glance to be the death knell for NTL. Don't forget that the bondholders have an immense amount of finance invested in the company and will not sit calmly back and watch it all go down the drain. NTLI shares are trading at just under $69 and rising. Reuters give it a very low risk grade http://investing.reuters.co.uk/Stock...boutRiskGrades

Shareholders wont give a rats ass if ntl go down (the major ones who are rich) like all failing companies they will pull out just before it crashes leaving it without a spine. Out of interest say someone who owns 10% of ntl how much would they have pocketed from that division NTL sold recently?

I think everyones getting a bit carried away here. Who suggested ntl was going under???

ntl is still generating very good revenues.

It would appear that there have been 2 cock ups recently that have had 2 impacts.

1. the Met Police Contract = current redundancy program
2. field operations reporting = current overtime ban

The company is trying to save as much cash as possible because of the above. Which is prudent so that they "don't" end up the financial creek.

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

Shareholders wont give a rats ass if ntl go down (the major ones who are rich) like all failing companies they will pull out just before it crashes leaving it without a spine. Out of interest say someone who owns 10% of ntl how much would they have pocketed from that division NTL sold recently?

Originally Posted by dezzo

No but they will cut everything they can from the company and leave it limping along barely able to function before selling it off to the highest bidder.

The major shareholders who are rich have more sense than to let a company devalue itself before getting rid of their shares. They didn't get rich by throwing money down the drain. If a company is seen to be going down the pan who is going to take the risk of buying shares at an high price? The big shareholders have to protect their investment. The funds raised by the sale of broadcast is only a drop in the ocean at the side of investors current share value. Any savings made by the actions just reported are miniscule at the side of the companies worth. Have a look at the big shareholders and the value of what they own of NTLI. http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=NTLI

[Womble]

Nice to know someone is getting minted while the rest of us get well and truly screwed!!!!!!!!!

INSIDER & RULE 144 TRANSACTIONS REPORTED - LAST TWO YEARS
Date Insider Shares Transaction Value*
18-Jan-05 MOONEY. 4,166 Auto Sale at $66.87 - $67.55 per share. 280,0002
18-Jan-05 MOONEY 4,166 Plan Sale 279,8021
31-Dec-04 MOONEY 15,000 Option Exercise at $15 per share. 225,000
31-Dec-04 MOONEY 31,667 Sale at $72.72 - $73.35 per share. 2,313,0002
31-Dec-04 MOONEY 31,667 Plan Sale 2,313,9071
3-Dec-04 KERREST 4,000 Acquisition at $71.36 per share. 285,440
15-Oct-04 MOONEY 4,167 AutoSale at $62.25 - $62.35 per share 260,0002
30-Sep-04 MOONEY 15,000 PlanSale 2,363,4991 30-Sep-04 MOONEY 15,000 Option Exercise at $15 per share. $225,000
30-Sep-04 MOONEY 35,932 AutoSale at $61.46 - $62 per share. $2,218,0002
30-Sep-04 MOONEY 2,400 AutoSale at $62.04 - $62.2 per share. $149,0002

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=NTLI

Using my limited maths! he has binned $9,998,7533, nearly 10 million

[ian@huth]

Originally Posted by Womble

Nice to know someone is getting minted while the rest of us get well and truly screwed!!!!!!!!!

INSIDER & RULE 144 TRANSACTIONS REPORTED - LAST TWO YEARS
Date Insider Shares Transaction Value*
18-Jan-05 MOONEY. 4,166 Auto Sale at $66.87 - $67.55 per share. 280,0002
18-Jan-05 MOONEY 4,166 Plan Sale 279,8021
31-Dec-04 MOONEY 15,000 Option Exercise at $15 per share. 225,000
31-Dec-04 MOONEY 31,667 Sale at $72.72 - $73.35 per share. 2,313,0002
31-Dec-04 MOONEY 31,667 Plan Sale 2,313,9071
3-Dec-04 KERREST 4,000 Acquisition at $71.36 per share. 285,440
15-Oct-04 MOONEY 4,167 AutoSale at $62.25 - $62.35 per share 260,0002
30-Sep-04 MOONEY 15,000 PlanSale 2,363,4991 30-Sep-04 MOONEY 15,000 Option Exercise at $15 per share. $225,000
30-Sep-04 MOONEY 35,932 AutoSale at $61.46 - $62 per share. $2,218,0002
30-Sep-04 MOONEY 2,400 AutoSale at $62.04 - $62.2 per share. $149,0002

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/it?s=NTLI

Using my limited maths! he has binned $9,998,7533, nearly 10 million

Not all profit though as some of the transactions were take up of options and we don't know from those figures how much he paid for some of those shares. Still not bad picking up share options for $15 and selling them for $60-£70. Wish I was a couple of coppers behind him.

[Alan Waddington]

Originally Posted by Russ D

I've been passed this from an annonymous source....

Sound's like all the NTL doom mongering is premature. I wouldn't like to work for COBI right now though.

Alan

[Florence]

Originally Posted by Alan Waddington

Sound's like all the NTL doom mongering is premature. I wouldn't like to work for COBI right now though.

Alan

If all this noise has made NTL change their minds then we have won an important battle. You cannot keep laying of the staff that are customer facing in a company with thousends of customers. It's upper managmant now that needs culling. They have too many bosses and not enough workers, NTLs pyramid has gone upside down..

[Chrysalis]

Originally Posted by Kits

If all this noise has made NTL change their minds then we have won an important battle. You cannot keep laying of the staff that are customer facing in a company with thousends of customers. It's upper managmant now that needs culling. They have too many bosses and not enough workers, NTLs pyramid has gone upside down..

Good words

[goblin]

Originally Posted by Alan Waddington

*No preventative maintenance*

*Power Outages will be attended until 11pm, then cab will have to run on batteries until 8am.*

So, can we sue for negligence if the batteries give out & those 999 calls don't go through?

Is this a *real* possibility that calls to 999 could end up not routed to the emmergency services if the batteries fail?

[SLM]

A couple of words to sum up ntl,

Its a technical company run by sales people.

Hope that makes sense.

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by Pierre

I think everyones getting a bit carried away here. Who suggested ntl was going under???

ntl is still generating very good revenues.

It would appear that there have been 2 cock ups recently that have had 2 impacts.

1. the Met Police Contract = current redundancy program
2. field operations reporting = current overtime ban

The company is trying to save as much cash as possible because of the above. Which is prudent so that they "don't" end up the financial creek.

I have not picked this thread to reply to cos an ntl employee has posted, it just covers 2 issues close to my heart in the past.

The met police contract was obviously a big c**k-up, that's nothing new in ntl, more projects were wrong than right with the biggest offenders being the business department. ntl always employed plenty of "project management" types, and not enough people who actually knew how all the nuts and bolts went together.
I think the big difference now and a few years ago is money, ntl used to get into deep trouble on contracts and they would always use the one card they had up their sleeves when things went wrong. "Throw money at it" and "Give it the customer for free because we have made such a big hash of it"

The good skilled engineer type employees were always thin on the ground in ntl, I noticed most started leaving from corporate positions around 1998-1999, we saw the same happen in our region with some very good guys walking away. When things get bad the first to go are the ones who can find a better job, and the company is left with the unemployable ones. I do not generalise with that statement because ntl obviously has some good engineers still working for them, but the overall standard of skills compared to 5-6 years ago is definately lower due to people leaving and lower qualified and skilled people moving up to take their place.

The field operation situation is only the tip of the iceberg, those departments have been treated very badly for a number of years. They have undergone changes to working hours and practices and some I know have even been threatened with the sack if they question for example "why they are paid a few grand less than anyone else in the deaprtment" The latest redundancies in my old region of Wales, has meant they are able to get rid of 2 guys that have been off long term sick and were quite frankly long overdue for disposal, but they have also lost another 2 that have taken exeption to the latest shafting and gone out to find themselves another job.

Unfortunately for ntl as a company and it's customers, the 2 guys who have decided that ntl can stick their job where the sun doesn't shine are 2 of the best employees I have had the pleasure of working with on occassions. one guy was always very keen and very intelligent, his father was even an ntl manager and he had enough a while back and decided it was time to get out of the sorry place. The other guy had been with ntl from about 94-95, and was a very hard working guy. I understand he has left due to problems similar to my own when at ntl, he just had no work to do!

To correct that, there was plenty of valuable work for him to carry out but no budget for it to be done. I understand he has left because he doesn't want to carry on sitting on his backside taking the money every month whilst waiting for a bit of work to come his way.

Money problems aside, ntl is in one big hell of a mess

[nidave]

Just as a mental exercise - If ntl went belly up what do you think would happen?

[Escapee]

Originally Posted by nidave

Just as a mental exercise - If ntl went belly up what do you think would happen?

The situation will not arise where someone switches the power off on a friday night, but if this did happen customers would just go elsewhere, BT would probably suffer coping with demand for extra lines and Sky would have problems meeting demand for dish installations. It would be no great loss for the customer, but however it would be bad for the employees still left at the company.

Business customers wouldn't be affected a great deal, ntl has lost a lot of large customers and there would be no security/defense problems because the likes of ntl and telewest are not trusted with carrying traffic for the critical national infrastructure.

[Chrysalis]

I disagree it would be very bad for customers.

1 - Some have no ADSL in area and would lsoe their only option of broadband.

2 - Some cannot have sat dishes on property for various reasons and lose option for extra channels.

3 - Reduced competition making both BT and SKY get a nice present.

[Neil]

Originally Posted by Chrysalis

I disagree it would be very bad for customers.

1 - Some have no ADSL in area and would lsoe their only option of broadband.

2 - Some cannot have sat dishes on property for various reasons and lose option for extra channels.

3 - Reduced competition making both BT and SKY get a nice present.

I'm sorry to sound harsh here, but that's the price that is paid when a bunch of monkeys run a company the way ntl has been run for the last 'I don't know how many' years.

What goes round comes around, & all those idiots at the top must be feeling really proud of themselves now....

[ntl customer]

ntl has lost a lot of large customers and there would be no security/defense problems because the likes of ntl and telewest are not trusted with carrying traffic for the critical national infrastructure.

So who does carry traffic for critical national infrastructure?