Dallas: Blockbuster laying off 20 percent of headquarters staff

[rainbow4321]

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8965ET00.html


Blockbuster Inc., nation's largest movie-rental chain, plans to lay off up to 20 percent of its headquarters staff in Dallas and the suburb of McKinney, company officials said.

Between 200 and 300 jobs will be eliminated, including open positions that won't be filled, company spokeswoman Karen Raskopf said Thursday. She said the reduction should conclude by the end of April.

The cuts are designed to help offset an incremental $70 million that the company said it would spend this year on Blockbuster Online.

Blockbuster earlier said it would have to cut costs and reduce its corporate staff to help build its growing online DVD rental business.

[UpInArms]

1. Blockbuster CEO 2004 total pay was $7.2 mln less options

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BBD34F1A2%2DE56F%2D4063%2D8C5B%2DA9FCB2ED0E40%7D

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Blockbuster Inc. (BBI) said Thursday that Chairman and Chief Executive John F. Antioco was paid total compensation of about $7.2 million for 2004, compared with $7.17 million from the previous year.

Both compensation amounts exclude the grant of stock options and restricted stock award.

The Dallas-based video retail chain said Antioco received a restricted stock award valued at about $26.8 million for 2004, compared with no award for the previous year.

Blockbuster also said it granted Antioco 5 million stock options for 2004, compared with a grant of 200,000 stock options for 2003.

...more...

Cutting costs? :rofl:

the CEO just walked with $7.2 MILLION!

how many employees could have stayed?

that's about 700 workers at $5.15 an hour for one year

[redqueen]

3. How many instances of CEO's cutting their outrageous pay are there?

I can't imagine there'd be more than a very few.

Greedy pig bastards... they don't care as much about their business succeeding as they do their ridiculous 'lifestyle'.

[rainbow4321]

4. You would think people would connect the dots..

EDS just put out a thing thanking their CEO for turning the company around and saving them $$$...which sounds just great til you Google "EDS" and "lay-offs" and get results like "EDS: 20,000-30,000 to be layed off"..meanwhile, the CEO got a thank you bonus of several million dollars!
Like Blockbusters, EDS is here in Dallas area...just another nail in the coffin for our local economy!!

[mhr]

2. More Insult To Injury For The Dallas Economy

Notice that Dallas has barely recovered to employment levels last seen in January 2000!

[Wright Patman]

5. Boo frickin' hoo

Live by the Dubya, die by the Dubya.

Maroons in the economically-distressed 'burbs of that desolate metro area still voted SEVENTY-FIVE PERCENT for the Shrub-a-Dub in November 2004.

It's ALL CLINTON'S FAULT. Oh yeah. I forgot. He murdered Terri Schiavo, too!

[mhr]

6. Well I Live In Dallas And Have Been Unemployed For A Long Time

I assure that I did not vote for Dubya!

[rainbow4321]

9. Texas unemployment rate goes up

Sorry you are having a rough time :-(

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8963M881.html


The Texas unemployment rate edged up to 6 percent in February as job growth fell by more than half compared to January.

The Texas Workforce Commission said Thursday that nonagricultural employment increased by 8,800 in February. While the commission said it was the sixth straight month of job growth, it was just 40 percent of the January increase.

The commission estimated 664,500 unemployed Texans in December. The estimates do not include people who have stopped actively looking for work.

The state's jobless rate remained higher than the national figure of 5.4 percent in February, although the national figure increased by two-tenths of a percentage point over January.

[redqueen]

8. Dallas went nearly 50% for Kerry.

Thanks SO much for your sympathy... really inspiring, being written off that way.

[cap]

10. keep the faith, redqueen

keep on truckin down the line, sure enough to find a victory.
\
One fine day it will come, the demographics are in your favor. The redistricting is not.

[Wright Patman]

13. Sorry about all the 'collateral damage'

to DUers. I was speaking of Collin County, one of the bleakest and most depressing counties in the state--paved-over blackland prairie which should be allowed to return to a state of nature. But my own county went 71 percent for the Chimperor. Texans have some good traits, but tribal loyalty to a homegrown idiot (who was born in Connecticut, BTW) is uncalled-for.

We Texans are like the people in Tikrit rallying around Saddam and even many of them eventually saw the error of their ways. It's only because the "conquerors" were even worse that Iraq is such a mess.

[rainbow4321]

14. Hard to believe he was once seen as a carpetbagger ...

Per a documentary on cable news a while back: He only married Laura cuz she and her family were a well to do West Texas family. He was running for office BUT West Texans didn't like shrub cuz he was seen as a carpetbagger, not a local. So he married Laura in hopes of being accepted and elected. He still lost and according to their friends/locals interviewed in that show, the marriage started to fail right afterwards. No surprise if he saw it only as a ticket to winning.
If only the wisdom of those locals still existed today..instead, all we have now: kool-aid addicts.

[jburton]

12. Kerry won Dallas, and nearly won Dallas County

nt

[dubyaD40web]

7. More layoffs in a Red State.....

Still glad they voted for * though!

[BiggJawn]

11. Now that they can't stick ya for the price of a DVD...

...in lieu of "Late Fees", they have to make it up somewhere...

Stinking corporate crap-masters.

When Goldsmith was Mayor of Indianapolis, he used to beat the drum about how "unfair" it was to Free Enterprise for the taxpayers to be competing with companies like Block-head-Busters by having free videos at the Library.
I think the Director of the Library responded something like being glad Borders wasn't contributing to the Mayor's PAC, or they'd REALLY be in trouble.