Former Sears employees worry about lost severance, possible reduced pension - Business. Sue Earl is still reeling from news that Sears has cut off her severance payments. She says she stands to lose upwards of $2. I feel robbed," says Earl, who did everything from work in the children's department to handle catalogue orders during her 3.

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Sears. "It's another slap in the face," adds the 6. Especially when they reach out after you've left and snatch that money back from you."'We're mad as hell.'- Sue Earl. Earl was laid off when the Sears store where she worked, in Cobourg, Ont., shut down in March — three months before the department store chain announced it would close 5. When those workers lose their jobs, they won't receive severance.

On the day it filed for bankruptcy protection, Sears also informed previously laid- off workers like Earl it was axing their severance payments."We're mad as hell," says Earl, who has kept in touch with fellow ex- employees. We've supported Sears with positive attitudes, and this is how we're treated."Pensions in peril. Earl also fears losing thousands of dollars from her pension as part of the restructuring process. I just feel helpless," she says. Sears has a court hearing next week where the company will request permission to halt both its retiree benefit payments along with special payments it has made for some time to top up the underfunded pension fund. Many of Sears' 1. They also don't like the idea of losing their medical, dental and life insurance benefits. Joseph Moczulski, of St. Thomas, Ont., fears he could lose his Sears retiree benefits and a portion of his pension.

Joseph Moczulski )"We don't have any rights under this court protection," says Joseph Moczulski, who worked for Sears as a long- haul truck driver for more than 3. It will be a hardship," says the St. Thomas, Ont. resident of the possibility of losing his medical benefits. Both Moczulski and his wife are diabetics."We were promised that from the company," says the 7. They don't care about the years we put in."Employees at back of line.

Sears Canada told CBC News that deep financial troubles left the iconic retailer with no choice but to seek court protection from its creditors while it restructures. As part of the court proceedings, Sears said it's not able to make payments to a number of stakeholders, including laid- off employees owed severance. As far as retiree benefits and pensions are concerned, Sears contends it's too early to predict what will happen and claims employee pension payments may not be compromised. The retailer also said ex- employees who feel they're entitled to more compensation can make a claim as part of the bankruptcy proceedings. But for most, that could be a futile endeavor. It's unlikely employees will recover their losses, says Toronto labour lawyer Lior Samfiru. That's because when compensation is doled out in these situations, secured creditors like banks get priority. Sears Canada said that, as part of court proceedings, it is 'not able to make payments to certain creditors, including severance payments.' (Colleen Connors/CBC)"Whenever a company is under creditor protection, employees are at the back of the line," says Samfiru, with Samfiru Tumarkin LLP in Toronto. If it yields something — and I highly doubt that it would — it would be small, small pennies on the dollar."He adds that what the retailer is doing is perfectly legal.

Lost your job recently? Chances are you didn't tell your friends and family that you got fired. Instead, you likely used a euphemism to help soften the blow, such as. Watch Miss Julie Putlocker. Directed by Christopher Smith. With Danny Dyer, Laura Harris, Tim McInnerny, Toby Stephens. During a team-building retreat in the mountains a group of sales. Entertainment Tonight (ET) is the authoritative source on entertainment and celebrity news with unprecedented access to Hollywood's biggest stars, upcoming movies. Sears Canada is facing a social media campaign calling for a boycott after the company said it planned to pay millions in bonuses to keep executives on board during.

It's easy to demonize Sears here, but at the end of the day, Sears is acting in accordance with our bankruptcy laws."'Disgusting behaviour'While it's following the letter of the law, Earl believes Sears cutting off payments to workers could hurt the department store's image."I think Sears is shooting themselves in the foot," says the former employee. Even store customers have complained on the retailer's Facebook page about the elimination of workers' severance."Canadians won't stand for that. Just as well to close up all the stores when you take that stance," posted one person."Disgusting behaviour by a shell of a once great company," commented another customer. Moczulski agrees Sears was a good company.

They'd do anything to keep us happy," he says about working for the retailer. You just wouldn't believe how fantastic it was."And that makes it all the more difficult for the retiree to witness Sears' downfall, which could end up costing him as well. I'm saddened about it, about how a company so great went downhill so fast," he says.

Verizon closes $4. Watch Extraordinary Tales Megavideo. B acquisition of Yahoo, Marissa Mayer resigns [Memo]It’s now official.

After Yahoo shareholder approval last week, Verizon today announced that it has finally closed its acquisition of Yahoo, which it plans to combine with its AOL assets into a subsidiary called Oath, covering some 5. Tech. Crunch) and 1 billion people globally. It will be led by Tim Armstrong, who was the CEO of AOL before this. As expected, Marissa Mayer, who had been the CEO of Yahoo and recently received a $2. Given the inherent changes to Marissa Mayer’s role with Yahoo resulting from the closing of the transaction, Mayer has chosen to resign from Yahoo. Watch The Squeeze Online. Verizon wishes Mayer well in her future endeavors,” Verizon said in a statement.

You can find Marissa in her own words here on Tumblr. TLDR: It’s a long list of the achievements made with her at the helm these last five years, and — alas — you will only read of the struggles that Yahoo went through between the lines. The deal, nevertheless, brings to a close the independent life of one of the oldest and most iconic internet brands, arguably the one that led and set the pace for search — the cornerstone of doing business on the spaghetti- like internet — at least until Google came along and surpassed Yahoo many times over, and led the company into a number of disastrous and costly attempts to redefine itself, ultimately culminating in the sale we have here today.

The sale of Yahoo is another sign of the massive consolidation that continues to happen in the world of online media and content, as large companies look to bring together multiple audiences for economies of scale to build out stronger advertising businesses in competition with the likes of Google and Facebook.“The close of this transaction represents a critical step in growing the global scale needed for our digital media company,” said Marni Walden, Verizon president of Media and Telematics (which will include Oath), in a statement. The combined set of assets across Verizon and Oath, from VR to AI, 5. G to Io. T, from content partnerships to originals, will create exciting new ways to captivate audiences across the globe.”Carriers have been an especially interesting player in this regard, as they are looking to offset declines in their legacy businesses. But don’t cry for Verizon just yet: the company employs 1. As we wrote last week, there will be cuts of around 1. Yahoo and merger with AOL, around areas like operations and sales and marketing.

Today, no word about that in the official announcement although we are asking about this. Also not specified is who else is departing along with Mayer. As we reported last week, Adam Cahan, who had been an SVP at Yahoo very close to Mayer, was also on his way out, as was Bob Lord, the CISO who was at the head of Yahoo’s security operations when its massive breaches were revealed (although he was not there at the time that they were taking place). That breach resulted in Verizon knocking off several hundred million dollars from its original offer price for the company.

A spokesperson for AOL/Oath declined to comment on specific departures, and provided the following statement about the other redundancies, in line with previous statements: “Oath’s strategy is to lead the global brand space.  With access to over 1. B consumers upon close, we will be positioned to drive one of the most important platforms in the consumer brand space.  Consistent with what we have said since the deal was announced, we will be aligning our global organization to the strategy.”In the meantime, unsurprisingly, David Filo, Eddy Hartenstein, Richard Hill, Marissa Mayer, Jane Shaw, Jeffrey Smith and Maynard Webb Jr. Yahoo’s board.“We’re building the future of brands using powerful technology, trusted content and differentiated data.

We have dominating consumer brands in news, sports, finance, tech, and entertainment and lifestyle coupled with our market leading advertising technology platforms,” Armstrong said in a statement. Now that the deal is closed, we are excited to set our focus on being the best company for consumer media, and the best partner to our advertising, content and publisher partners.”This will include not just media brands but ad tech underpinnning how to leverage these audiences.

In this case, the focus in on ONE by AOL and its Bright. Roll technology covering mobile, video, search, native and programmatic ads. An internal memo from Armstrong is below.