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Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

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Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#271

Post by BeetleB »

doetoe wrote: post #269
BeetleB wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This common assertion is false. See my earlier comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34584450

Your comment only says that it was mostly in RSU, and since the stock had been going down it will likely be worth 1/3 by the time it vests. Even so, 25% of 1.1m is pretty much negligible, certainly compared with the 5% normal employees get cut

I agree a 25% cut for him is nothing. I was pointing out the falsehood of him making $179M. He made about $10M in 2021 and will likely not see most of the remaining amount as he will not hit the share price in time.

Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#272

Post by doetoe »

runamok wrote: post #183
ryanisnan wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This. I've had one pay cut in my career, and it immediately made me just up and leave. I don't know why one would tolerate such a thing, unless there was significant up-side still on the table.

I have heard about companies doing this in times of economic downturns to prevent layoffs. If that was the cause and it was communicated as such and temporary I'd be willing. Example: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/toyota-staf...

Not sure that I'm right, but I have the impression that for companies that are strongly driven by "shareholder vale" (like Intel as it appears), if before the pay cut it is thought that cutting jobs would give a net benefit (again in terms of shareholder value only), shortly after the pay cut they will think so again/still think so, even if the pay cut was justified by being able to avoid layoffs in this way.

Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#273

Post by nurspouse »

artisanspam wrote: post #267
nurspouse wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Former Intel employee here. This may be true for their design folks, but the largest portion of the company is related to the fab, and there aren't many jobs for those folks. Moreover, the alternatives (TSMC, Samsung, etc) suck as much as Intel.

I too am ex-Intel. The majority of employment opportunities are in the fab but that’s mostly manufacturing and technicians. It’s not mostly PhDs with no breadth knowledge which is what the original comment was seeming to imply.

PTD is almost entirely PhDs.

Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#274

Post by anticensor »

osigurdson wrote: post #211
mrweasel wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I also don't fully understand the dividend investor mindset That interesting, because I don't understand the mindset of investors who are just trading stocks like baseball cards. They don't seem to care what the company actually produce, just that the numbers tell them that the stock can sell for a little more next year. Divided makes a lot of sense, because it keeps yielding money, for the same initial investment.…

It is really just a matter of what a company does with its earnings. The options are: 1) invest in the business (including acquisitions, etc), 2) stockpile cash and 3) pay dividends.

A company cannot do 2) for too long at once or it might face legal trouble.

Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#275

Post by HDThoreaun »

UncleOxidant wrote: post #74
etempleton wrote: post #72

As an investor, I would have been fine with cutting the dividend if it meant saving the compensation of employees. Intel has a lot going for it still, but this is a sure fire way to hurt morale and create an exodus of good talent and future leadership, especially when your key rivals are hiring.

Agreed. This is a very capital intensive business. They should be investing that capital into upgrading their technology. The dividend should be off the table for the next few years, at least. Paying a dividend probably made sense in the 90s and even into the early 2000s when Intel pretty much owned the whole PC CPU market. But now they're in a tough spot and the only way out is to invest that money that they're thro…

Intel has plenty of money. Their debt load is miniscule, they're investing tens of billions in capex. This is just an excuse to cut wages.

Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#276

Post by HDThoreaun »

tempestn wrote: post #38
hgarg wrote: post #36

"All employees below Principal Engineer, grades 7 to 11, will get a 5% cut, 10% cuts will be instituted for VPs, and the executive leadership team will take a 15% cut, with Pat Gelsinger taking a 25% cut. " So the OP would rather have Intel fire thousands of employees?

From the headline I would infer OP would rather Intel cut their dividend.

yea but they're not going to do that.

Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#277

Post by artisanspam »

nurspouse wrote: post #273
artisanspam wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I too am ex-Intel. The majority of employment opportunities are in the fab but that’s mostly manufacturing and technicians. It’s not mostly PhDs with no breadth knowledge which is what the original comment was seeming to imply.

PTD is almost entirely PhDs.

Not denying that, but you previously claimed that “the largest portion of the company is related to the fab.” If you’re saying PTD PhDs are this “largest portion of the company” in terms of engineers, that makes no sense. Intel isn’t hiring more PhDs than Masters/Bachelor – there aren’t enough PhDs out there for that to ever happen.

The majority of Intel employees are directly related to the fab, but those employees are not mostly PhDs without many other job prospects.

Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#278

Post by ChuckMcM »

perth wrote: post #208
ChuckMcM wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW when I worked at Intel their 401k match was also in Intel Stock so there is that. (I do not know if they still do that) And yes, when I was there in '84 they were doing pay cuts to keep layoffs to a minimum.

401k match at Intel is just normal $ through Fidelity now

Bummer, the "Free$tock" program (as it was called when I was there) was a good deal.

Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#279

Post by doetoe »

BeetleB wrote: post #271
doetoe wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment only says that it was mostly in RSU, and since the stock had been going down it will likely be worth 1/3 by the time it vests. Even so, 25% of 1.1m is pretty much negligible, certainly compared with the 5% normal employees get cut

I agree a 25% cut for him is nothing. I was pointing out the falsehood of him making $179M. He made about $10M in 2021 and will likely not see most of the remaining amount as he will not hit the share price in time.

I misunderstood the part of the RSU's: I thought you meant that by the time they vest they will be worth considerably less than $179M, because the stock price has gone down. However if I understood you correctly now, these will be worth 0 if the stock price doesn't hit a certain value in time

Re: Intel Cuts Employee Pay to Maintain Quarterly Dividend

#280

Post by osnium123 »

fooker wrote: post #163
anonreeeeplor wrote: post #55

You don’t want a Silicon job because your talent is illiquid. They can take a giant dump directly in your mouth while making steady eye contact and you can’t leave because there is nowhere to go. In software and in startups if you have relevant skills and modern, up to date experience you can switch easily. Don’t work in industries that are declining and have no future and require advanced technical training that is…

Meanwhile ~50% of the EE PhD graduates, and ~10% of the CS PhD graduates from my university are joining Intel on a regular basis. Intel has a steady funnel of smart international PhD grads who are usually fine with the comparatively lower pay.

Are the EE PhDs at your university better than the top undergrads? I ask this because a PhD is no guarantee of quality.
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