Microsoft to cut 5,000

[Jan 22, 2009, 1:48 pm ET] - Share - Viewing Comments

Microsoft will be cutting 5,000 jobs following an 11 per cent year-on-year decline in net profit, reports MCV. They say some 1,400 employees will be let go immediately, with 3,600 cuts to follow over the next 18 months, which they hope will save them around $1.5 billion a year. Microsoft is not commenting at this time whether any of these cuts will hit the Xbox operations of its Entertainment and Devices Division.

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21 Replies. 2 pages. Viewing page 1.
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21.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 23, 2009, 00:38

elefunk

What sucks is I was interviewing with them as this news came out this morning. Oh, well. According to the press release and other articles, they're still hiring. The problem is that you'll be competing for positions with former Microsoft employees along with the rest of the people you'd have been competing with :-/ This comment was edited on Jan 23, 2009, 00:42.

20.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 23, 2009, 00:11

Parallax Abstraction

Care to respond to my posts instead of derail threads off in meaningless tangents?

That you're accusing me of that is even more hilarious.




Parallax Abstraction Geek Bravado \| Retro Flashback \| All Together Now

19.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 23:54

Beamer

What sucks is I was interviewing with them as this news came out this morning.
Oh, well.

E&D is hurting a bit now, anyway, and that's where I'd prefer to end up. I'd be ecstatic getting in nearly anywhere, though.




------------- Music for the discerning: http://www.deathwishinc.com http://www.hydrahead.com http://www.painkillerrecords.com

18.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 23:32

elefunk

I do not, but I have close friends who do. Not an uncommon thing, since I do live near their campus in Bellevue, after all. People make silly arguments, I'll refute those arguments. Care to respond to my posts instead of derail threads off in meaningless tangents?

17.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 23:28

Free Mumra

"LMN8R, do you work for Microsoft?" I have an acquaintance who works in the viral marketing field and he tells me how common it is for large corporations to infiltrate major forums. There are also many bloggers who collect paychecks from public relations firms. We're living in an age of 'memes' and the internet is the easiest and cheapest way to generate a positive image. This comment was edited on Jan 22, 2009, 23:29.

16.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 22:52

Parallax Abstraction

LMN8R, do you work for Microsoft? I'm asking honestly because with the passion that you defend them with regardless of what they do, good or bad, I assume you must be defending an employer. Either that or you own a large amount of their stock. It's really quite hilarious to see you become so vitriolic when people call them on their actions.

This comment was edited on Jan 22, 2009, 22:53.




Parallax Abstraction Geek Bravado \| Retro Flashback \| All Together Now

15.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 22:40

elefunk

What are the odds that this was the team responsible for Vista? Zero. Try reading the actual article - the cuts are company-wide. Besides, you think it would be smart to lay off thousands of employees with a specific OS-development skillset and leave the company with people who have far less experience in the area? Pretty fucking stupid idea, and considering how much Vista has improved, it's quite obvious the the problem was a time crunch pushed by upper-management due to a major code reset only around 2 years before the OS released. Besides, the "Vista team" has been working on Windows 7 for the past 2+ years, which, you know, is getting pretty damned positive impressions so far. I'm sorry I don't give 2 shits about H1B workers in these times. They should be the first to go, period. Just last year Microsoft was pushing for a LARGE expansion of H1B's. If they are going to now 1 year later start laying people off let them start with the H1B workers. We have to take care of our own national interests, our own citizens, not people from other countries in these bad times. Microsoft is a US based company, and its responsibilities should be to the US. If they don't like that then Congress should step in and force them to do so. Great, so once you start your own multi-national corporation with 90,000+ workers worldwide that ends up being publically owned by shareholders, you'll be able to find out just how awesome those shareholders will take to your feel-good "own national interests" reasoning for choosing who to fire. In the meantime, real business men who actually know what to do to satisfy their shareholders lay off the under-performing workers, or people working on under-performing projects, regardless of their nationality. This comment was edited on Jan 22, 2009, 22:42.

14.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 21:57

zodden

I'm sorry I don't give 2 shits about H1B workers in these times. They should be the first to go, period. Just last year Microsoft was pushing for a LARGE expansion of H1B's. If they are going to now 1 year later start laying people off let them start with the H1B workers. We have to take care of our own national interests, our own citizens, not people from other countries in these bad times. Microsoft is a US based company, and its responsibilities should be to the US. If they don't like that then Congress should step in and force them to do so. This comment was edited on Jan 22, 2009, 21:59.

13.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 21:43

Ruffiana

What are the odds that this was the team responsible for Vista?

12.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 19:46

elefunk

If the math is right, that's 300k per person fired, according to their savings statement...somehow I doubt those folks all make even near that much in a year. I call shenanigans, yet again on M$ B$. There's really no way around this except outright calling you an idiot. Well, maybe if you asked the question without coming off as an asshole using "M$", but alas, your post made you sound like an asshole. Salaries are only a fraction of the overall cost it takes to hire an employee. You have salaries. You have insurance benefits, of which Microsoft's are simply among the best available in the world. You have the free drinks at work (which is a negligible cost overall). You have subsidized food in the cafeterias. Add to that the cost for renting office space, maintaining current offices, taxes paid on offices, travel expenditures, and more. When you put it all together - and this is no different from most any other company as well, $300k per person isn't at all unreasonable or out of the norm. I dunno, I was living right next to MS and it wasn't just the odd one or two, the whole area is pretty much 90% Indian workers..now seriously given the unemployment rates..they couldn't find ANY american workers? I live in this area for 7 years and seen the population change drastically to pretty much Indian. Nothing against people from any country, but it was just amazing to me to see them bring in so many workers from another country. I live in Bellevue, right near the Microsoft campus. Maybe you're blind, or maybe you're not used to diverse populations, but saying 90% is just damn foolish. Horribly exaggerated. Microsoft hires the people who are right for their job. Even if it was true that the majority (or even just close) were Indian, what of it? It's not Microsoft's social responsibility to discriminate who they hire based on race, especially in economic conditions like these. Especially when the majority of their business comes from outside of the United States. They hire the best people for the job, plainly and simply. Don't even try to pretend that their University recruiting in the United States is lacking - I constantly saw them everywhere when I was at school. This comment was edited on Jan 22, 2009, 19:49.

11.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 18:38

Steele Johnson

I dunno, I was living right next to MS and it wasn't just the odd one or two, the whole area is pretty much 90% Indian workers..now seriously given the unemployment rates..they couldn't find ANY American workers? It's not skill set, it's the savings. Don't let anyone fool you by saying that there's not enough talented engineers in the US, because there definitely is. MS is just too cheap to pay the average American engineer's salary. And now look at them... they've been cranking out shit products and spiraling downward for the past 8 years (minus their xbox division, which relies heavily on 3rd party success anyway). I've been in the software industry for a long time now and I've worked with these so-called skilled Indians. I really hate to stereotype them, but most that I've worked with have a lot of the same issues: great lone programmer, horrible team player. Most companies rely on teamwork, and if that breaks down, the products end up sucking to the high heavens.

10.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 17:40

Wildone

I dunno, I was living right next to MS and it wasn't just the odd one or two, the whole area is pretty much 90% Indian workers..now seriously given the unemployment rates..they couldn't find ANY american workers? I live in this area for 7 years and seen the population change drastically to pretty much Indian. Nothing against people from any country, but it was just amazing to me to see them bring in so many workers from another country.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 17:08

Bhruic

If the math is right, that's 300k per person fired, according to their savings statement...somehow I doubt those folks all make even near that much in a year. The math is wrong. You're assuming the only cost(s) associated with them are their salaries. Someone's already pointed out health insurance, but there are quite a few other costs as well.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 16:53

Grooves

Of course they will cut jobs and hurt people in the process. Heaven forbid they just eat the profit loss. The key here is they still made a HUGE profit. They just didn't make AS MUCH profit as they thought they would and they call this a loss. It's the typical numbers game.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 16:40

PHJF

You forgot how much health insurance costs in America.




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Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 16:36

m0deth

If the math is right, that's 300k per person fired, according to their savings statement...somehow I doubt those folks all make even near that much in a year. I call shenanigans, yet again on M$ B$.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000 jobs

Jan 22, 2009, 15:43

Kxmode

Isn't that like 0.01% of their work force?

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 14:31

elefunk

I wonder if they are gonna fire any of the thousands imported workers from India that are crawling all over Redmond? I don't get why Americans couldn't have done those jobs.. Microsoft hires workers based on talent, just like any competent recruiter does. If the recruits from India they interview happen to be more talented, then they will be hired over local workers. But in the meantime, it's not like there's a dearth of Americans working for Microsoft in Redmond. This comment was edited on Jan 22, 2009, 15:32.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 13:57

siapnar

I don't see how they could justify firing anyone from their XBOX Operations, considering the 360 has been selling like nuts and the only real expense they have is manufacturing the things for a minute amount amount of the retail cost.




I have projectile dysfunction.

Re: Microsoft to cut 5,000

Jan 22, 2009, 13:38

Steele Johnson

Because these companies can get away with paying an HB1 employee less money. The whole HB1 concept is flawed because it says that a company can justify sponsoring a visa for an employee who has a specific skill set that they're looking for, and that they can't find the equivalent skilled American. Really, it's just an excuse to pay an employee less money (theoretically, they should be paying more to import an employee). I believe this will change now that Obama is in office.

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