Embattled Goldman Sachs boss David Solomon griped that frequent media leaks about inner turmoil on the bank were “damaging” the firm’s popularity because it implements sweeping cost-cutting measures.
Solomon aired his concerns during his annual closed-door summit with roughly 400 Goldman partners in Miami. The important thing meeting took place weeks after the Wall Street giant slashed 3,200 jobs in its most extensive round of layoffs for the reason that Great Recession.
Solomon slammed media leaks in a response to an issue from certainly one of the meeting’s attendees, the Financial Times reported. The bank boss reportedly went off script to deal with the problem, which was not included in his prepared remarks.
“David made the purpose that the leaks are damaging to the firm, they usually are. I heard the identical message from our partners all week,” a Goldman spokesperson told the FT.
Solomon reportedly admitted to partners that he had been too slow to announce the job cuts. Goldman has experienced a profit crunch in recent quarters as a consequence of a serious industrywide slowdown in investment banking activity and issues with its money-losing consumer bank Marcus, amongst other issues.
David Solomon’s DJ side gig has raised eyebrows amongst some critics.David Solomon/Instagram
Solomon told partners that the job cuts would have been less severe if he had acted sooner. His prepared remarks lasted for about an hour.
“Because the environment was growing more complicated in Q2 of last yr, every bone in my body believed we should always be far more aggressive in slowing hiring and reducing headcount,” Solomon said on the meeting, in line with the FT, which cited a source with knowledge of his remarks.
A bank spokesperson told the outlet that “it will have been unusual not to deal with the method on headcount reduction this yr.”
Despite Solomon’s concerns, the partner meeting produced one other round of media leaks.
Some partners have grown so dissatisfied with Goldman’s direction that they’ve discussed ways to get the bank’s board of directors involved, Insider reported, citing 4 sources who spoke to partners.
The report added that the disgruntled Goldman partners were “already talking about who might possibly replace Solomon if it involves that.”
Moreover, some Goldman insiders are purportedly miffed over Solomon’s “penchant for living a glamorous life,” which incorporates his well-known side gig as a DJ and an affinity for trips on bank-owned private jets.
Solomon reportedly told partners he must have ordered layoffs sooner.REUTERS
Insider acknowledged that it was “not clear how widespread this discontent is” amongst Goldman’s 400 partners.
“This leadership team set a transparent strategic direction for Goldman Sachs and it’s working — delivering a ten.2% return on equity in 2022 and growing our book value per share 40% since our first investor day,” Goldman Sachs spokesperson Tony Fratto told the outlet. “These criticisms aren’t serious they usually aren’t based in truth.”
As The Post reported, company insiders referred to the recent round of layoffs as “David’s Demolition Day.” Laid-off bankers accused the bank of using underhanded tactics to interrupt the bad news.
Last month, the bank disclosed that Solomon’s pay was $25 million in 2022 — a 30% drop from a yr earlier.
