Around 1,550 people would probably not agree, but news that jobs were about to be cut by Royal & Sun Alliance was greeted warmly by investors.
The insurer was among the leading risers on Monday after it said it would make the redundancies - 1,000 of them in the UK - as part of a programme to save £130m a year. Royal also said it planned to make further acquisitions in Britain and abroad, helping push its shares 3.5p higher to 126.5p.
Royal was not the only insurer to move forward. A smattering of bid talk in the wake of last Wednesday's $11bn (£5.95bn) acquisition of Winterthur Insurance by Axa helped lift others in the sector.
Prudential added 17.5p to 566p while Aviva was 19.5p to 744p on suggestions of an offer from Italy's Generali.
The takeover speculation helped give leading shares an early lift but a weak opening on Wall Street saw some of the shine come off. Having been almost 70 points up at its best, the FTSE 100 index closed 28.7 points higher at 5626.1. Volumes however were fairly light, with just 1.08bn shares traded. Dealers thoughts were tending to drift towards Royal Ascot this week and of course, the World Cup.
"There's a fair chance this could be the quieter week we are hoping for," said Ian Williams of Oriel Securities. "The [US Federal Reserve interest rate] decision on June 29 is now a done deal and [we have] a sparse diary of economic data."
There was little real corporate news, but banking group Lloyds TSB managed to make the worst of its trading update. Its shares were among the biggest fallers in the FTSE 100, down 3.5p to 523.5p, despite lingering takeover hopes and news its was plugging its £2bn pension deficit.
Barclays Stockbrokers described the statement as "mixed", with revenues under pressure but good cost control helping to mitigate this. Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein said there were few encouraging signs in the bank's remarks and recommended switching into HBOS.
On the takeover front, broadcaster ITV added 2.5p to 105.25p after reports over the weekend that private equity groups Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Permira were considering a bid. This helped offset a negative note on the company by Goldman Sachs, which said it was cutting forecasts for the next three years to reflect falling advertising sales. ITV also announced on Monday it had reached a deal with independent producers to allow its programmes to be made available on the internet and mobile phones for 30 days after they are first broadcast.
The company is due to issue a trading update on Wednesday as part of an analysts presentation.
Meanwhile BSkyB was 13p better at 564p after Lehman raised its price target from 580 to 600p, saying it estimated the company will pay around £45m less for the remaining Premier League rights packages than it had previously expected.
Pearson added 6.5p to 706.5p, despite Deutsche Bank saying the media company is the most expensive quoted publisher and cutting its target from 700p to 680p. In the event of a breakup of the business - which it views as unlikely - it said the price could reach 715p.
Among the retailers, DSG - the company formerly known as Dixons - was 3.25p higher at 192.75p after the Guardian reported it was close to selling its Link chain to O2, the mobile operator owned by Telefonica. "The struggles of the Link mobile chain have been embarrassing to DSG in the UK and it will not be missed if it is sold at last," said broker Evolution.
WH Smith added 6.5p to 448p after the same broker issued an upbeat note with an add recommendation on the shares. After a meeting with the company on Friday, Evolution edged up its forecasts for the year from £78m to £80m. It said the previously announced demerger of Smith's news wholesale business could take place at the end of August. It believes the breakup of the company into two -wholesale and retail- will unlock more value than investors expect. Evolution puts a price of 410p a share on retail and 90p a share on wholesaling, giving a total price target of 500p for the shares.
Debenhams closed 6p lower at 190p as chief operating officer Michael Sharp sold 2.1m shares - 0.25% of the company - at that price, raising £4m. The shares are now sitting below their 195p flotation price. This sale overshadowed a couple of positive notes from the likes of Credit Suisse, which set a 220p target, and Morgan Stanley, which went for 230p.
Cruise group Carnival ended up being the biggest riser in the FTSE 100, climbing 77p to 2194p. Analysts were making positive noises after last Friday's results, with Kepler Teather & Greenwood advising clients to buy the shares.
British Energy added 18p to 687.5p ahead of results on Tuesday but going the other way was the drugs group Shire, down 7.5p to 744p after Evolution told clients to sell.
Lower down the market, technology group BTG fell 13p to 152p after it said it planned to start phase two clinical trials of its key varicose veins treatment without a partner. It had hoped to sign a partnership deal before starting trials. "While the strategy may be correct, deciding to start the ... trial only three weeks after stating it would need a partner ... will be badly interpreted by the market," said Evolution.
Millfield Group, the accountancy and financial products distributor, lost 1.25p to 1.5p on news that it was no longer in talks about being taken over. It now plans a placing of shares with existing shareholders, and warned it could go into administration if the money is not raised. In that case, it added, it was unlikely the company's shares would be worth anything.
Dental group Oasis Healthcare dropped 3.5p to 24p as it rejected a number of takeover offers as"opportunistic" and said they failed to reflect its strong growth prospects.
Petards Group, formerly Screen, fell 0.35p to 0.95p. The company issued full year results a week late, which showed it in the red to the tune of £449,000, an improvement on the previous year's £3.57m loss. The company's shares were suspended for five months during the financial year, which created a degree of uncertainty, not least at its software solutions business. This is likely to continue for the first half of the current year, the company warned.
But Gippsland, the Australian owned gold-mining company, unveiled encouraging drilling results in Egypt and jumped 0.75p to 5p.
And Newcastle United scored a 7p rise to 54p as it confirmed weekend reports that Sir John Hall might sell his 28.8% stake in the company. US hedge fund Polygon was said to be interested in buying the shares.
Interactive World, which provides content for mobile phones, closed its first deal since joining AIM in early May. The company, where media owner David Sullivan has a stake, has signed an agreement with Probability Games to provide casino and card games over mobile phone handsets. Its shares added 0.5p to 87.5p.