> The announcement of the layoffs was theatre for Wall Street. I'm interpreting this as "the (publicly-traded) company used a layoff announcement to appease in

> The announcement of the layoffs was theatre for Wall Street. I'm interpreting this as "the (publicly-traded) company used a layoff announcement to appease investors and show them that executive management is taking steps to ensure the company operates more efficiently, thereby keeping it within the good graces of these investors/hedge-fund managers/etc".