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Microsoft To Lay Off Another 2,850 People In the Next 12 Months (businessinsider.com)

An anonymous reader writes from a report via Business Insider: Microsoft is planning to lay off 2,850 more employees in the next 12 months or so, according to Microsoft's full 10-K report it filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Part of the document reads: "In addition to the elimination of 1,850 positions that were announced in May 2016, approximately 2,850 roles globally will be reduced during the year as an extension of the earlier plan, and these actions are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2017." Business Insider reports: "The first 1,850 layoffs mentioned here were mainly from Microsoft's struggling smartphone business, including 1,350 employees in Finland working at what was once Nokia world headquarters. These layoffs also included people in Microsoft's salesforce, which was recently reorganized and saw the departure of COO Kevin Turner. In total, Microsoft laid off 7,400 employees in its last fiscal year, which ended on June 30th, 2016. The new layoffs are a continuation of the same plan, and include the sales group as well as others. About 900 people affected by the new layoffs were already informed during the sales reorganization, according to a person familiar with Microsoft's plans."

9 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Worst Part by sexconker · · Score: 5, Funny

    The severance pittance^W package is tied to an "exit interview" that involves upgrading to Windows 10.

    1. Re:Worst Part by Darinbob · · Score: 5, Funny

      Sorry to interrupt, but this is important.
      Windows 10 free upgrade offer ends
      July 29th.

    2. Re:Worst Part by sexconker · · Score: 5, Funny

      After the 29th, it goes from "offer" to "severed horse head in your bed".

  2. Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by kenj123 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    MS must have some kind of assurance the H1B pipeline will be at full capacity for the foreseeable future.

  3. Pisses me off by geek · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sick of seeing profitable companies laying people off like this. I'm a right to work guy normally but this is starting to really piss me off. My company did the same shit. Had a great quarter then the next day after earnings released "By the way we need to lay off 3% of staff to position us better for next quarter."

    Tech industry should really unionize. I hate unionize generally but this industry needs it.

  4. Re:Sounds like more H1B are on their way. by I75BJC · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hillary Clinton and the Democrats have promised this for years. Only Trump and the Republicans are complaining about the loss of jobs for Americans. This is what I read and hear in the News Media.

  5. pivoting by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Informative

    They are pivoting to the cloud. Firing people who worked on non-cloud projects (mainly smartphone), hiring new ones to work on cloud projects. Incidentally, the total Microsoft workforce is ~115,000, so this is not a huge amount.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  6. M$ is following a well-known path by CAOgdin · · Score: 4, Insightful

    1. They unload Win10 on the world, only partially designed, and sucker us into doing their product testing. Then, the add more and more complexity with unnecessary "features" that are mere click bait.

    2. Then, the declare it's the last of the "Windows" line (unlikely, and a stupid claim by an executive without credibility to assert it.)

    3. Now, they plan to get rid of productive employees. Why? "Bottom line" or, as Jack Welch said, early in his career at GE CEO, "the purpose of a corporation is to maximize shareholder return on investment." Then, two years ago, after retirement, he admits in Forbes' magazine that his was "...the dumbest idea in the world."

    4. And Microsoft is joining the cadre of companies with "great (aka overpaid) CEOs" (usually self-proclaimed) who produce poor results over the long-term (see http://www.wsj.com/articles/be...).
    They're about to fall off a cliff...and they think they're on solid ground. Mark my words.

  7. Re: Learning to program will get mr a job? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If you're an unemployed programmer, the problem is you.

    Bullshit. The employment market has been negatively affected by the deliberate actions of the government and corporations. If you think that you're such a special snowflake that these sociopaths wouldn't get of you in a heartbeat you're one of those libertarian delusionalists. That you're employed is simply because they haven't finished yet, but there's no reasoning with the pull yourself up by your own bootstrap crowd. You probably believe in tax cuts for 'job creators' too.

    Sure, doing those things you say will increase your odds and you'll be ok for a while. Of course we'd all have an easier time were it not for very active sabotage of our career prospects by well funded sociopaths encouraging foreign trade schools to turn out legions of barely qualified third world job stealers.

    One wonders if you think that unemployed steel workers are their own problem. I mean the government at the behest of large corporations actively encouraging and subsidizing import of cheap steel had nothing to do with that, it's all on the individual, right? Libertarians disgust me.