Date: Wed, 20 Nov 1996 12:24:30 -0500
To: [c--m--x] at [facteur.std.com]
From: [b--ea--y] at [po-box.mcgill.ca] (bart)
Subject: Marvel Fires 115

>From yesterday's Daily Variety on the web:

MARVEL AXES STAFFERS

    NEW YORK (Variety) - The other shoe dropped Monday at Marvel
Entertainment Group, as the beleaguered comics and trading-card
company axed close to one-third of its staff. A week after its
80% owner Ronald Perelman unveiled a low-ball ``rescue'' plan,
Marvel on Monday laid off 115 staffers and eliminated another 28
positions that had not been currently filled, mostly in the
comics business. The layoffs follow a round of cutbacks several
months ago.

--

Those firings are in addition to the 275 people that Marvel fired on
January 4 of this year

For those of you not following all of this at home, it's getting quite
interesting over there at Marvel (unless you work(ed) there). Marvel's
debt-load is $623 million and there is a great deal of speculation that
they are about to default on their bonds. Ron Perelman (80% owner) wants
Toybiz (which he also owns) to buy Marvel and dilute the stock, which would
mean that if he did default he wouldn't lose the company since it would be
just a part of a new company (hence the scare quotes around 'rescue'
above). The other Marvel stockholders are suing to stop this since it would
mean the further devaluing of their stock (which has crashed already).

Meanwhile Barron's floats rumours that Time/Warner is interested in bailing
out Marvel and the Wall Street Journal makes off-hand references to the
chaos in news stories not related to Marvel as a way of relativizing other
crises ("It's not as bad as the situation at Marvel")

In related news Acclaim is said to be suffering from a crushing debt load
and they have requested a two-week delay in releasing their year-end
financial report. Broadway, of course, has gone to sleep and fired everyone
but Shooter (and one other person?). Big (Tekno) took the high jump
recently too.

I'll bet Greg Stump really regrets that decision to become the news editor
of the Journal now.

bart


 _________________________________________________________________
 To leave this mailing list, send mail to [m--r--o] at [world.std.com]
 with the message UNSUBSCRIBE COMIX