Bristol-Myers (BMY): Better Share Price Through Lay-Offs

Health and Healthcare

Published: December 5, 2007 12:33 pm

Bristol-Myers (BMY) showed the world its equivalent of the old Soviet "Five Year Plan" today.

All of the talk up front was about becoming "a next-generation BioPharma company that pairs the scale and resources of a mid-sized pharmaceutical company with the entrepreneurial spirit and innovative focus of a biotech startup." Jargon. Barely English, as a matter of fact.

The details are more mundane. The company is going to cut a bunch of mature brands, close factories, and fire a lot of people. The details are these. Brands in the "mature products portfolio" will be cut by 60% by 2011. Manufacturing facilities will be cut by 50% by the end of 2010. BMY will sack 10% of its people before the beginning of 2010.

BMY said it will continue to invest in key growth products, including specialty and biologic medicines, and cardiovascular and metabolic drugs. And, it may sell off some divisions which don’t match its plans.

The company revised its 2007 fully diluted earnings per share guidance on a GAAP basis to $1.15 to $1.20 from $1.28 to $1.33, And, BMY provided 2008 fully diluted earnings per share guidance on a GAAP basis of $1.44 to $1.54

This is only a restructuring at a company that can no longer support its old cost base. Wall St. saw through it right away, and BMY shares are down.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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