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Pfizer Won't Share Wyeth's Q3 Numbers; Layoff Announcements Due This Week

By Jim Edwards

Updated on: October 21, 2009 / 12:20 PM EDT / MoneyWatch

Pfizer employees and investors were probably equally frustrated by yesterday's conference call. Management said it had axed 11,200 jobs at the company and planned to announce more layoffs this week (the merger requires 19,500 jobs to go); and despite pleas from two analysts Pfizer said it would not provide Q3 sales numbers for Wyeth.

Now that the two companies have merged, Wyeth's Q3 essentially doesn't exist on paper. It's Q4 numbers will be incorporated in Pfizer's statement with all the usual detail, management said. But until then, Q3 is a phantom quarter that never happened. That's a disappointment for those of us who wanted to compare the two companies up until the moment of the merger. We're left guessing as to which company was the better-looking partner when they ran down the aisle.

Here's the exchange from yesterday. You can sense the disappointment among the analysts:

Seamus Fernandez - Leerink Swann: Can you tell us whether or not we will see the Wyeth and when we would see the Wyeth numbers for the third quarter of this year? And is this in Pfizer's hands at this point to make that decision?
CFO Frank D'Amelio: On Wyeth's Q3 results, we are not planning on issuing Q3 results for Wyeth. The deal closed on October 15th, so obviously we will begin reflecting Wyeth results in the new company's results beginning on October 16th, and therefore that will be incorporated into our Q4 results for the new company.
Scott Braunstein - JPMorgan: I respect that you guys just closed the Wyeth deal, but last I checked this is still about selling products, so how about you guys give us the revenue over the next few days; think about giving us the revenue for the Wyeth products? That would be very helpful. Thanks.
Frank D'Amelio: Scott, we will be providing starting with Q4, and effective October 16th, all the level of detail that we currently provide today. ... We will incorporate the Wyeth products into those schedules on a going forward basis.

As for the layoffs:

Frank D'Amelio: We are also continuing to size our workforce level with current market dynamics with the Pfizer standalone workforce level of 75,400 at quarter end. This represents a net decrease of about 6,500 compared with year-end 2008. Since the beginning of 2008 our total workforce decreased by approximately 11,200.
CEO Jeff Kindler: This week we are communicating the changes in our U.S. field force that will result from the acquisition, changes that will be fully implemented by the end of this year.
I want to emphasize, of course, that this is only the first round of decisions about our sites and staffing. We are now finalizing plans for our other sites. We intend to announce decisions about R&D sites in the next 30 to 60 days and about manufacturing sites three to six months from now.
Of course, as we've said, our plans do include reductions in our staffing levels. In that regard, we will move quickly, act fairly, communicate openly and retain critical experience and talent. We will provide you with more information regarding these decisions as appropriate and as always we will consult employee representatives as local [lawyers] and regulations require.
These are exciting times at Pfizer...

Exciting? Well, not dull, certainly.