MAM
Times OOH acquires media branding rights of Chennai’s billboards
NEW DELHI: Times OOH has acquired exclusive media rights over Chennai’s central and southern billboards. Located in the heart of the city at Chetpet and iconic spots at OMR, these mediums cover some of Chennai’s prime and busiest areas from Chetpet bridge to Perungudi and Sholinganallur toll plazas. The diverse kitty comprises massive unipoles, impactful gantries, toll plazas and more. These strategically placed billboards can provide uninterrupted visibility to brands and reach out to more than 1 lakh vehicles per day.
Times OOH CFO & head of acquisitions Shekhar Narayanaswami said, “Chennai has always been a lucrative market for us and its billboards are undoubtedly amongst the most potent OOH media properties for advertisers across the country. At Times OOH, we plan to serve 14 media units, offering high impact options like unipoles and gantries at OMR, followed by vibrant, eye-catchy butterfly panels in Chetpet. After our runaway success with Coimbatore and Trichy Airports, we are highly positive with this new crucial addition in our portfolio.”
Brands like Amazon Prime, Zebronics and SPR Constructions have come on board to advertise on the billboards. Chennai’s Chetpet is a well-developed, prime residential neighbourhood, while OMR – the growing IT corridor with large number of offices and residential real estate, is on its way to becoming a highly developed sub-city by itself. In Tamil Nadu, apart from the billboards in Chennai, Times OOH also has exclusive media rights at Coimbatore and Trichy Airports.
Brands
Estée Lauder to shed 10,000 jobs as new boss bets on digital shift
The cosmetics giant raises its profit outlook but stays silent on a possible merger with Spain’s Puig, as job cuts deepen and a three-year sales slump weighs on the turnaround
NEW YORK: Stéphane de La Faverie is not done cutting. Estée Lauder announced on Friday that it plans to eliminate as many as 3,000 additional jobs, taking its total redundancy programme to as many as 10,000 roles, up from a previous target of 7,000 announced a year ago. The company, which owns La Mer, The Ordinary, Tom Ford, and Aveda, employs roughly 57,000 people worldwide. The mathematics of what is now being contemplated is stark.
The fresh round of cuts is expected to generate a further $200 million in savings, bringing the total annual savings from the programme to as much as $1.2 billion before taxes. That money, De La Faverie has made clear, will be ploughed back into the turnaround.
A CEO in a hurry
De La Faverie, who took the helm in January 2025, inherited a company that had endured three consecutive years of annual sales declines. His response has been to move fast and cut deep. A significant portion of the latest redundancies reflects his push to reduce headcount at US department stores, long a cornerstone of Estée Lauder’s distribution model but now a channel in structural decline. In their place, he is accelerating the shift toward faster-growing online platforms, including Amazon.com and TikTok Shop, a pivot that is reshaping not just where Estée Lauder sells but how it thinks about its customers.
The numbers are moving in the right direction
Despite the pain, there are signs the medicine is working. Estée Lauder raised its profit outlook for the remainder of the fiscal year, guiding for adjusted earnings per share in the range of $2.35 to $2.45, above analyst estimates and a notable step up from the $2.05 to $2.25 range it had guided for in February. Organic net sales growth is expected to come in at 3 per cent, the company said, at the high end of the range it set out in February.
The share price tells a mixed story. After De La Faverie took charge, the stock surged nearly 60 per cent, buoyed by investor optimism that a longtime company insider could finally arrest the decline. But 2026 has been rougher: the shares have fallen 27 per cent this year, weighed down by disappointing February results and the overhang of unresolved merger talks with Spanish beauty giant Puig Brands SA. The company gave no additional details about those discussions on Friday, leaving the market to guess.
Silence on Puig
The proposed tie-up with Puig remains the most consequential unknown hanging over Estée Lauder. A deal with the Barcelona-based group, which owns brands including Carolina Herrera and Rabanne, would reshape the global luxury beauty landscape. But with nothing new to say and a turnaround still very much in progress, De La Faverie is asking investors to trust the process.
Three years of sales declines, 10,000 job cuts, and a merger that may or may not happen. At Estée Lauder, the overhaul has barely started.
