“Microsoft Corp. is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years, as the software maker looks to slim down and integrate Nokia Oyj’s handset unit, people with knowledge of the company’s plans said,” Dina Bass reports for Bloomberg.
“The reductions — which may be unveiled as soon as this week — will probably be in areas such as Nokia and divisions of Microsoft that overlap with that business, as well as marketing and engineering, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the plans aren’t public,” Bass reports. “The restructuring may end up being the biggest in Microsoft history, topping the 5,800 jobs cut in 2009, two of the people said. Some details are still being worked out, two of the people said.”
“While Microsoft has undergone smaller, intermittent job cuts in individual businesses — for example trimming a few hundred positions in advertising sales and marketing in 2012 and some marketing jobs across the company earlier that same year — the company has only undertaken a companywide restructuring impacting thousands of workers once before, in 2009 at the start of the recession. Over the course of that year, the company cut 5,800 jobs, or about 5 percent of its workforce at the time,” Bass reports. “Some of the cuts will be among software testers, said one of the people.”
MacDailyNews Take: Microsoft tests its software?
“Microsoft is the latest technology company seeking to reduce costs by trimming jobs. Hewlett-Packard Co. in May announced more cuts after an 11th-straight quarter of declining sales,” Bass reports. “CEO Meg Whitman has said she will eliminate as many as 16,000 jobs on top of 34,000 already cut.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
When we were an agrarian nation, all cars were trucks. But as people moved more towards urban centers, people started to get into cars. I think PCs are going to be like trucks. Fewer people will need them. And this transformation is going to make some people uneasy… because the PC has taken us a long way. They were amazing. But it changes. Vested interests are going to change. And, I think we’ve embarked on that change… We like to talk about the post-PC era, but when it really starts to happen, it’s uncomfortable. – Steve Jobs, June 1, 2010
Death is very likely the single best invention of life. It is life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. – Steve Jobs, June 12, 2005
As much as I dislike Microsoft and its products, thousands of people losing their jobs is not something to be celebrated. I hope these people are able to land on their feet…
Exactly.
Unfortunately it is always the little guys getting axed, not the fat cats who put the company in this position.
No shit. Imagine the golden handshake Monkey Boy got when he left even after he managed to maneuver the company into the current quagmire.:)
Monkey boy made $1B the day he announced retirement…while other employees pay the price for his lack of leadership, vision, and execution. Truly sickening.
http://m.us.wsj.com/articles/BL-MBB-6910
Slash & burn = opportunity for skilled ex-MS employees in the Bay Area where skilled jobs are in so much demand we have to import workers from Bangladesh.
MonkeyBoy is still on the MS Board Of Directors and is currently the largest shareholder of MS stock now that Bill Gates made a large divestment in MS stocks recently… Still getting paid by MS, just not the CEO anymore.
AMEN!
Agreed completely. As much as I want to stick it to arrogant Windows users when the world realizes their beloved emperor has no clothes … people losing their livelihoods and the means of supporting their family is a horrible thing.
Best wishes to the people about to be laid off.
Dvorak might lose his job as an M$ advocate and Mac fan baiter.
This is the only way to get the stock price moving up, well, not counting Bsllmer’s retirement announcement.
Thank Ollila at Nokia for this. They decided to hire fkup Elop and now the bill come due even more. Nokia is disconnecting more people.
Sure sucks being an IT doofus these days.
no surprise. advancement in technology always leads to a smaller labor force. Sucks being part of the working class. you work at a company, bragging about how great their products are, only to see those same products eliminate your position later on.
Will this affect the Microsoft Stores employees?
Maybe it’s so they have some money left to give to the share holders when they close up shop. One can only hope.
my compassion for laid off Microsoft workers (and I do have some sympathy for them) is tempered by the fact that as an aapl investor I realize these people have tried their level best to take business away from Apple and thus reduce or destroy all my money. Anybody remember the “iPhone funeral” Microsoft workers enacted?
When Apple stock tanked from 700 to 400 did Microsoft or its workers slacken in their attacks on Apple. Nope.
I wonder how many Msft workers said “I’m so sorry aapl investors lost so much money and some their life savings… “.
Apple hasn’t attacked Msft with ads since 2009 (last Mac PC guy ad) while Msft has continually ran ads like “Samsung and Apple idiots at the wedding” etc.
I know I might sound like an uncaring Asshat but I’m just pointing out the reality which is until they are laid off they are trying their best to take money away from me.
A negative ad about a competitor is an ad about a competitor.
This is a typical mistake. A company gets into trouble. The owners reduce staff, close stores, and change the decor to a warehouse look. All the financial analysts applaud, because it makes the company more streamlined and efficient.
However, what matters is the consumers’ reaction. Whether the layoffs and store closings affect them personally or they just hear about them, they think the company is dying, and they start finding alternatives. The company spirals downward until it goes completely out of business.
Start with the Microsoft Stores…
What is truly sad is that many of the MS staff will be pink slipped before they can read and understand Nadella’s 3,100 word Manifesto.
With only 5% of the words, Tim Cook was able to succinctly and accurately express Apple’s vision.
While Nadella labored on about MS’s existing hardware, software, and services; Tim mentioned nothing of that…only WHY Apple exists and why they do what they do.
Nadella uses great corporate speak which tells me he does not have a clue what to do! He confuses tactics with strategy. Again the Titanic is without a captain.
MDN Take: Apple’s “near death” & resurrection” that caused the return of the iCEO Steve Jobs, was a cleansing period for Apple, Inc. too… DOJ should have demanded that MS be broken up into 2 or 3 smaller companies when it had the chance.