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IT Blogwatch

A Daily Digest of IT Blogs from Richi Jennings

Microsoft layoffs, round two... 3,000 heads roll

1 comment

TAGS:layoff, Microsoft, MSFT, redundancy, Steve Ballmer
IT TOPICS:Careers, Management, Windows & Microsoft

In Wednesday's IT Blogwatch, Richi Jennings watches phase II of the Microsoft layoffs: another 3,000 redundancies worldwide. Not to mention Microsoft's "painful lack of self awareness"...

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

Microsoft lays off 5K employees; saves $1.5bn

Vanessa Fox has bad news for the Microsoft chickens:

Today, Microsoft announced that it had delivered layoff notices to 3,000 employees across several divisions ... just months after an initial round of 1,400 who were let go when Microsft announced second quarter earnings.

At that time, Microsoft said it planned to eliminate 5,000 jobs this year, and Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer said that today’s news was phase two of that plan.

Sylvie Barak feels sorry for the victims:

Ballmer said employees in the US being layed off would hear from their managers today, whilst employees in other Micro$haft offices worldwide would be told by their local teams.
...
Rubbing salt in the freshly reopened wounds, Ballmer ... assured them the firm would "continue to provide support as we did during the previous job eliminations." Unfortunately for ex-employees, that support most likely won't extend to helping them pay their mortgages or cover their children's education.

Peter Kafka has good news... and bad:

The good news, says CEO Steve Ballmer: The newest round means “we are mostly but not all done” with layoffs.
...
The company just posted a miserable quarterly-earnings report, and company executives spent most of the ensuing conference call warning investors that things look dire.

Eric Savitz looks to the motivation:

Don’t be surprised if they do make more cuts; the Street gave the stock a lift last month after the March quarter results showed greater than expected expense reductions.

Sadly, Joe Wilcox knows a thing or two about layoffs:

As if today’s Microsoft layoffs aren’t bad enough, some of the blogging/reporting makes matters worse, by emphasizing that more are coming. Oh yeah? May you doomsayers stub a finger on the M, S, F and T keys.
...
The positive is more important here. Microsoft’s fiscal year ends on June 30. Now is the right time to make this next round of cuts—and perhaps even it’s a little late. Microsoft should want to finish all the layoffs in this fiscal year—lump all the charges together with earnings declines. Steve isn’t really saying more layoffs are coming but that Microsoft hopes these cost-cutting measures will be enough.

Todd Bishop wonders where the cuts hit:

The latest layoffs are roughly equally spread between the U.S. and international markets ... The first round was more concentrated in the United States.
...
Microsoft isn't breaking down the latest cuts by unit or division of the company. The initial cuts appeared to hit the Entertainment & Devices Division particularly hard.

Dean Takahashi knows where:

We’ve learned that Massive, the company’s in-game advertising business, suffered something like 75 percent layoffs ... though we don’t know the exact headcount in the Massive division, which Microsoft acquired for an estimated $200 million to $400 million in 2006.Massive was part of a new wave of ad networks aimed at the video game audience.
...
Young male gamers ages 18 to 34 weren’t watching much TV anymore. ... Massive could insert ads into game worlds where they could plausibly enhance the realism. ... The Obama campaign put ads on billboards alongside the highway in the Burnout Paradise game. But not every game genre could accommodate such ads, and the entire online ad industry has taken a hit during the current recession.

The pseudonymous Who da'Punk / Mini-Microsoft rants at Microsoft HR:

Strangely, [Lisa] Brummel ... asked folks to avoid emailing each other today because the last layoff's email volume was so distracting. Gee, sorry to be a bother while people are trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

Let's see... how to avoid that... I know, tell people what the hell is going on and which people / groups are affected. Oy.

And finally...

If Everything Was Made by Microsoft
[hat tip: Miguel Lopez]

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Previously in IT Blogwatch:

Buffer overflow:

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 24 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

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When or maybe never

Submitted by tuomoks on May 6, 2009 - 11:44 A.M.

Funny to blame MS today. When do IT (computer, system, CS, etc) people realize that in modern world workforce, customer security, loyalty, technology and even business continuity, whatever are not important. Companies / corporations don't make decisions based on those. The decisions are made based on Wall Street perceptions, short term profit dreams, weak or not even existing strategies or many other personal beliefs / greed.

Now, these are just small news, created to make name, fame and money. Of course MS (and others, it's not MS alone) want to move workforce somewhere else where it's not so expensive (or at least it seems so!) How many thousands (millions) have lost jobs let's say in last 50 years the same way? Not much wrong in that in a free market society which we all love so much(?!), remember, you are free to move also! Doesn't that feel good - no limits what an individual or (as long as corporations have the same rights) a corporation is allowed to do to enhance the profits! You'll get what you ask.

Seriously, nothing new in this, corporations have moved workforce round the globe a long time, started new product lines, killed old products, abandoned old customers to get new, made stupid (and sometimes even bright!) decision forever. There is a lot what can and should be done locally, support your local production instead of going after the cheapest even if produced (imported!) by GM, Ford, Boeing, Wall Mart, MS, IBM, etc. You'll be amazed of the quality, maybe a little less in quantity or size, but the quality will definitely more than fill the difference. If we don't, local production will slowly disappear and then there are no choices. Unfortunately, have to run, have to change my car for larger than the neighbor bough yesterday and pick up the "enhanced" berries on road, they are cheaper per pound than the local ones even they have no taste..

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