MGM Mirage redundancies 'would have happened anyway'

2008-04-16 15:12:53

A spokesman for MGM Mirage has claimed that the 400 job cuts announced this week are due to a restructuring of the business - not problems with the economy.

Chief operating officer at the firm Jim Murren told the Las Vegas Sun that changes need to be made to the company's management system, which he implied had become over-inflated when MGM Grand merged with Mirage Resorts and purchased Mandalay Resort Group.

He said: "We found many redundancies that were a hangover from the Mirage and Mandalay acquisitions.

"We extracted a lot of value from these deals ... but there was a substantial amount of further benefit that we couldn't have accomplished under the old corporate structure."

It had been thought that the impact of the credit crisis could be behind MGM Mirage's decision, however, Mr Murren said while it has been affected by economic problems, the job cuts would likely have happened anyway.

Earlier in the week it was revealed by the Associated Press that the company's chief executive Terry Lanni made $9.6 million last year, while Mr Murren received $6.6 million from the firm.