Mega-ISP Update: Layoffs At AOL, Voices At MSN

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Tuesday August 14, 2001 @07:33AM from the it's-also-easy-to-catch-a-venereal-disease dept.

rfc1394 writes: "There are two articles, the first article, in today's Washington Post, mentioned that AOL, having successfully digested Time Warner, is producing results of that digestion by additionally extruding almost 1,000 people in layoffs due to an anemic advertising market and a need to meet projected revenue goals of about $40 billion. A separate Post article mentions how Microsoft's online service MSN is having a woman named Shelley Reynolds create a series of spoken identifiers for its online service similar to AOL's famous 'You've got mail!' and identifies El Edwards as the man who is the voice behind the phrase. The second article also tells about the effect of sound on people with respect to technology, and the payments involved (Edwards reportedly got about $100; Reynolds will receive something under six figures.)"

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Ping! Ping! Ping! by Lemmy+Caution · 2001-08-14 08:16 · Score: 3, Redundant

You've just stated the biggest problem with shareholder capitalism as it is practiced today. We are only beginning to catch the fallout from this - there will be virtually no value in making long-term strategic goals if Boards of Directors are controlled by stock holders (usually fund managers) who have no stake in what happens after the current quarter. And it all becomes a numbers game.
During the boom, even companies that didn't want to grow (that is, wanted to build up existing markets instead of trying to rush into new ones and buy companies, etc.) were pretty much forced into it by shareholder expectations. And now shareholder expectations are working the other way - even solvent companies with working business models are compelled to cut back spending and lay people off, just because that's what "analysts" want to see.
And it will only get worse.