Allergan Expected to Have Plans Finalized by Year’s End

A high stakes takeover war has corporate battle lines drawn in Goleta.

The city is losing Allergan, a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical business, and hundreds of local jobs.

We wanted to know, what happens to all of those employees?

Allergan’s Goleta facility off South Los Carneros Road is expected to have finalized plans about the the restructuring by the end of the year, according to company spokeswoman Bonnie Jacobs.

The Botox maker is being pursued by Valeant, a Canadian-based pharmaceutical company.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Allergan is doing all it can to fight back against the 53 billion dollar takeover bid, including cutting out 1,500 employees, 300 of which are local.

NewsChannel 3 talked to Jacobs over the phone from the company’s headquarters in Irvine. She refused to be interviewed but said a portion of those 300 local employees will move to Irvine, but she wouldn’t say how many or what types of positions they hold.

The few employees we ran into at the Goleta facility refused to talk.

Tuesday’s announcement of the job cuts at Allergan smacks of a similar slash in a local workforce when 400 Santa Barbara Bank and Trust workers were laid off after merging with Union Bank.

Allergan employees left behind may face similar employment challenges.

“I expect people to be calling us, probably walking in and talking about their job search,” said Esther Li, senior executive recruiter at Spherion Staffing Services.

Li reflected on the cuts to the Santa Barbara Bank and Trust employees during the merger.

“A lot ended up getting either hired on by their competitors or actually moving out of the area or even doing a longer commute either to Ventura or farther up north,” said Li.

And some are still looking.

Li pointed out, there is a silver lining to these layoffs: Manufacturing, tourism and hospitality and construction industries are currently hiring and if they hire from this (potentially) local group of employees, they won’t have to pay relocation costs.

Li offered up some advice for those worried that they may find themselves out of a job by the end of the year, when Allergan closes in Goleta.

“Revamp your resume. Be assertive in your job search. Reach out to some of your network of people and find out who’s looking,” Li said.