Full article @ »www.p2pnet.net/story/16533

For whom Bell tolls: 2,500 execs

“It’d been predicted that once the the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and its partners had acquired BCE with Michael Sabia retiring as CEO, we’d see price hikes and layoffs since this buy-out puts the union and Bell Canada $52 billion into dept,” posted p2pnet’s Ottawa Gal last Friday.

Now, “BCE Inc.’s move to slash 2,500 management jobs or six per cent of its workforce is likely just the beginning as the company prepares to go private, say analysts,” says the Toronto Star.

“Canada’s largest telecommunications company announced yesterday that it would cut the management ranks at its Bell Canada phone subsidiary to provide an annual savings of $300 million in salaries.”

On the ground, Bell has struggled to defend its land-line franchise, where it has lost more than one million customers in the last three years, says the Montreal Gazette,

“In wireless, cable operator Vidéotron is shaping up to be just as daunting a foe in Quebec as it has been in landline phones.”

What’s coming up? And is Bell bandwidth management specialist Mirko ‘Mr5%’ Bibic on the list?

No names have been released and, “They’ve done the management ranks now,” according to Iain Grant, managing director of research firm SeaBoard Group.