Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
Thank you. (Operator instructions) Our first question is from Devin Ryan from Sandler O'Neill.
Devin Ryan – Sandler O'Neill
Good morning.
Bruce Wasserstein
Good morning, Devin.
Devin Ryan – Sandler O'Neill
Can you just give us some detail on the projected expense saves I guess as a result of the $60 million restructuring charge? And then what percentage of overall headcount is being reduced here?
Steven Golub
This is Steve. I mean, we don’t really view this is a cost saving issue at all. We view this as, as we look at our business, we continue to hire people; we continue to invest for growth in our business as a long-term strategy in developing client relationships. So what we are looking for is the right optimizing of mix of personnel to maximize our revenue generation as we go forward in time as opposed to thinking about it in terms of cost savings. It’s much more focused on what’s the right level of efficiency and productivity for us in a business model.
Bruce Wasserstein
I think one thing that’s different about the way we approach these things is we are looking at the next two to three years rather than the next quarter or half year. And what we are trying to do is anticipate the needs of the business world at that point in time. In order to do that, you have to reallocate, and like any company, set your priorities and be efficient about doing things. So that applies to all areas of the firm. It applies to new areas, new challenges in asset management. It applies to back office. It appears to the nature of our advisory activity because the nature of advice people had been seeking has shifted somewhat. And we are getting very much involved in things like debt advisory capital, structure advisory, which require somewhat different skills, and obviously generally capital markets. So what we tried to do is to figure out our strategic objectives and then mesh backwards in order to readjust for that, so as we all emerge from this period of economic turbulence, we’ve come out in a resilient very strong fashion. So that’s our main purpose, that’s our strategy. We want to continue to put Lazard in a preeminent position.
Devin Ryan – Sandler O'Neill
Okay. Thanks for that detail. And then just a question on the current environment. We’ve been seeing a number of announced M&A deals at least for the industry recently running into current problems due to either lack of financing or even in some cases financiers backing out. Is this a trend that – just want to hear your view, is this a trend that you expect will continue, accelerate, or are the deals that have run into problems is more a function of company or deal-specific issues?
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