William Blair Layoffs?!
Heard there was another round of headcount reductions at Blair. Anyone know further detail?
Disappointing to hear following their miniscule bonuses this year.
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Heard much higher than 10% and all levels impacted (first year analyst up to seniors). Friend there said it’s very bad
Heard almost 30% in some spots. First analysts all the way up. Brutal and unfair. Hope those affected land on their feet
You guys praise when tech companies lay off, thinking the same can’t happen to you. Brutal? Yes. Unfair? That’s capitalism baby.
Unfair? Downturn in the economy = layoffs. No one is entitled to a job, especially in a capitalist industry like IB.
I love these tough guy / gal responses in lay off threads. The brutal "realists" touting that this is capitalism bro and telling people to "man up" about layoffs. When I went through 07-08 and banks first started laying off, there were similar tough guys spouting the same as if it was some new age scholarship. And then when they realized they too were not special and were going to be slayed as well, the tears started to flow. Let's just hope all you fans of capitalism take it just as well as you dish it out.
According to Litquidity on IG, it’s 200 heads. Seems like it must be much beyond IB then as they only have ~600 bankers
Nope it was just ~20-30% of total headcount (on the IB side). Close friend works there and said it was a complete blood bath…
"It's a private company so it's more humane and doesn't need to overreact to market swings to appease investors"
Interned at one of the strongest group they have this past summer. Got a return but not going back.
It was so bad, 1/3 of interns weren't staffed on a live deal doing some bs work. Most of us went home before 7pm. AN/ASSO let alone senior people barely showed up in the office.
The incoming class was 50% bigger than us so can imagine how bad it would've been. Saw this coming from miles ahead.
This seems like the highest layoff percentage of any major bank.
Smallest bonuses and largest % layoffs of any firm on the street.
LinkedIn needs a "marked as safe" feature for when companies have massive layoffs, like Facebook has for when there are natural disasters / emergencies
With recruitment going on right now… who would want to even sign an offer to a bank that cut 20% of it’s bankers and pushed its full time start date by two months
Have a close friend at WB, passing along what I heard…
Layoffs were 10-20% across the board but closer to 30% in tech/healthcare/ECM. Most concentrated at associate level followed by analyst and VP. Very few seniors impacted. First years (associates and analysts) impacted as well. Obviously performance related but wasn’t just cutting the clear dead weight, sounds like some very well respected people were included here.
Sounds like people are (rightfully) quite mad, it was a complete blindside. Apparently even MDs weren’t in the loop and entire deal teams were fired with no planning. Sounds like entire firm is scrambling to keep deals moving. Curious if anyone here is working with them at the moment and can comment. Seems very sloppily done to me. My friends group was pretty busy pre layoffs so they’re completely slammed now, everyone getting added to new deals on top of existing workload.
Think people are very angry since Blair has always preached the “we’re private, we’re not like other big banks” and this was a ruthless layoff on top of really bad recent bonuses. Not good for a bank that prides itself on culture…
My take is Blair got too cocky for it’s own good - it was in the right place at the right time (mid market tech and healthcare, mostly) when it all went haywire in 2020-2021 and they hired as if they were the next Evercore. Now the music stops and turns out they’re still just a MM bank that tried to grow really fast and they need to revert back to the model of a few years ago. Just sucks since I know many people who were impacted…
CEO/senior leadership heads deserve to roll here, they screwed up forecasting and fired a bunch of analysts and associates because of it. According to my friend not a single MD was let go…
My take is you wanted to watch them fail. The reality:
This isn’t a bank that “got cocky” they made a strategic intentional decision to capture a market opportunity and hired personnel to capture it, now the market opportunity isn’t there and they need to decrease personnel. Other banks did the same. Hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Evercore or any other bank in tech is feeling the same pressure WB is and is thinking of doing the same. They aren’t an anomaly, they were first and we are heading into a recession.
the argument is more that a bank like Blair is at the volatile end of the IB pecking order. Markets go crazy and deals pop off, top groups get choosier with mandates, Blair sees an explosion in deals in their wheelhouse and a bit outside of it (that in bad times lower BBs, EBs, etc. would compete for), interprets this as a market share trend for the bank vs cyclical, overhires. That dries up and the banks higher in the pecking order just reach down market but still need people to process those down-market deals. They still take a ton of time, the fees are just lower. Blair then gets smoked, transaction volume collapses, and they have way too many people.
it will impact everyone sure, but what person above said seems accurate
WB MD: “Where are we on this book, meeting tomorrow? Needs to be printed tonight, I am flying in the morning.”
VP, Associate, Analyst: “”
MD: “?”
VP, Associate, Analyst: Email Bounces
HR: “Hello, hope you are well! Unfortunately these folks are no longer with the firm, have a great Pi Day!
Regards,
Us / They”
WB MD: sighs and mumbles, “got to make partner, got to make partner.”
What is the protocol for this? Do they have 2 weeks? Do they keep their LinkedIn title as IB Analyst until they find a new job?
Layoffs are effective immediately, but all people laid off are allowed to keep their linkedIn title for 2 weeks. After that, William Blair fines them $100/day (as per their employee agreement)