Microsoft To Lay Off 700 Employees Next Week, Report Says (geekwire.com)

According to a report by Business Insider (Warning: may be paywalled), Microsoft will cut about 700 jobs in conjunction with its quarterly earnings release next week. GeekWire reports: The latest layoffs are part of the company's previously announced plan to cut about 2,850 roles globally during its current fiscal year, according to the Business Insider report. The company declined to comment this afternoon, but we understand the report to be accurate, based on our own sources. Next week's cuts will be spread across a variety of job functions inside the company. The company's previous job cuts have come in areas including its smartphone business and global sales team. Microsoft announced its largest cuts in July 2014, eliminating 18,000 jobs, or 14 percent of the company at the time.

Comments

Windows 10 downgrade

[Anonymous Coward]

700 employees reach end of life. Support terminated.

Re:Windows 10 downgrade

[BarbaraHudson]

Nah - every time they boot employees the stock goes up - it's been that way in corporate America for a couple of decades now. Maybe they should bring back Balmer so they can fire him again and send it TO TEH MOONZ!"

After all, employees are now seen as a cost center, not an asset. "You will continue to be beaten until morale improves" was supposed to be satire.

The death spiral is continuing.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the way of big companies. The same thing happened in IBM and Nokia. The management gets bonuses based on short term goals. They start to cut the long term investment. They fail to do the research needed to deliver good products their customers need. They start to cheat their customers. After some years the business sufffers from loss of revenue. Only by cutting costs can they keep the profits. The management gets bonuses based on short term goals.

Quite early in the cycle you start filtering out so that the best people who can leave do leave and the worst people who can't leave but don't mind sacrificing their friends fight their way to the top. Microsoft ceased being critical years ago. It ceased being important recently. Soon it will cease being relevant. Speaking as a veteran of such a spiral (which is why I have to post anon), if you are good and you are working there get out now whilst having Microsoft on your CV still won't block your possibility to work elsewhere.

Re:The death spiral is continuing.

[Grishnakh]

This is some seriously delusional thinking. Microsoft not critical or relevant? What are you smoking?

First off, IBM is still here if you haven't noticed. They got out of PCs, but they still do lots of other stuff and are a huge and profitable company.

But back to MS: they absolutely are critical and relevant, because everyone's PC runs on their software. That isn't going to change, probably ever. If Windows 10 couldn't convince people to dump them, nothing will. They might not have gotten anywhere in mobile devices, but that doesn't matter because they still have their Windows and Office cash cows, and those aren't going anywhere, and there's no threats to them (do you see businesses switching all their workstations to OSX or Linux? Nope).

MS is doing the right thing: cut employees, and cut all long-term investment, and just keep slapping some new lipstick on the Windows and Office pigs. Corporations in particular will happily continue to pay through the nose for MS's enterprise products, and consumers are happy to use Windows 10 with its built-in spyware and advertising which MS makes money from indirectly. MS doesn't need to invest long-term, they just need to keep milking their cash cows. They can do this indefinitely, because the whole Windows 10 experience has proven, without a doubt, that customers simply will not leave that platform no matter what, and no matter how much it costs them.

Re:The death spiral is continuing.

[ClaraBow]

But back to MS: they absolutely are critical and relevant, because everyone's PC runs on their software. .

Seriously, when you use hyperbole and straight-out lie, I stop listening. There are a lot of PCs that don't run on Windows. Millions run Mac OS, Various Linux distros, and Chrome Os is making a huge dent in the educational market. Windows and MS Office isn't as important and prevalent as they used to be. They are a hugely important company, but they are not as influential on the PC market as they used to be.

Re:The death spiral is continuing.

[c]

But back to MS: they absolutely are critical and relevant, because everyone's PC runs on their software.

Their problem, though, is that everyone's PC runs on their old software just as well (if not better) than their new software.

What the Windows 10 debacle has shown is that the old stuff is good enough that the only way they can push the new stuff to a reasonable fraction of their users is to essentially force it on them, for free.

At the same time, efforts to diversify into other areas have not been, to put it charitably, as successful as they would have liked.

I'll agree that they're still critical and relevant, but at the same time, they're the least critical and most irrelevant than any other time in the history of the PC.

Re:The death spiral is continuing.

[TheFakeTimCook]

do you see businesses switching all their workstations to OSX or Linux? Nope.

Um, that's not entirely correct.

Remember that little corporation, IBM, you were talking about? They are busily deploying Macs (running MacOS, in case you wondered) at the rate of 1,300 new installs per week (now actually 1,900), and to the tune of 90,000 as of October, 2016, and projected to be 100,000 units by the end of last year (now actually 130,000).

And if you read the second linked-to article, you will note that it is the employees that decide whether they want a Mac, and if so, they receive a new, shrink-wrapped Mac and a URL, and with that, and only that, are able to do 100% of the setup entirely without involving IBM's IT department. This is one of the many reasons that IBM has stated that every Mac they deploy, regardless of the higher price of the Mac hardware, actually saves IBM money .

There are dozens of similar articles regarding IBM's highly successful Mac program. Just Google "IBM deploying macs" and you'll soon see what the corporate desktop is soon going to look like, at least for forward-thinking companies like IBM.

Re: The death spiral is continuing.

[Grishnakh]

But little that could be seen to change the computing market.

Why should I care what IBM does? If they need my interest, what can they do to capture it?

What makes you think they care about changing the computing market, or your interest? You seem to think that the role of companies is to change or improve the world. It isn't. The only reason companies exist is to make money. If IBM is doing that, then it's successful in its mission.

Re: The death spiral is continuing.

[Grishnakh]

Good luck editing a document or spreadsheet on a smartphone. Obviously, your family members don't do any real work.

Re:The death spiral is continuing.

[phantomfive]

At the same time, efforts to diversify into other areas have not been, to put it charitably, as successful as they would have liked.

No, they making money by the bucket-load. Check it out, the new face of Microsoft. They missed mobile, but they've managed to diversify sufficiently into other areas that they are now more profitable than any time in the company's history.

Good riddance to Windows, though. May it die a quick death.

Re:The death spiral is continuing.

[Grishnakh]

The pedantry here is ridiculous. "Everyone" in my prior post is obviously slightly hyperbolic in the context in which it was used, and a normal colloquial usage. The reality is that over 90% of everyone's PCs are running their software, and if you isolate that to business/government PCs it's almost 100%.

Re:The death spiral is continuing.

[thegarbz]

What the Windows 10 debacle has shown is that the old stuff is good enough that the only way they can push the new stuff to a reasonable fraction of their users is to essentially force it on them, for free.

That doesn't make them any less relevant. If they just up and disappeared who will patch the many thousands of holes that remain in the system? If anything Microsoft is more relevant than ever, and the entire world should be paying attention to them around about the time that Windows 7 reaches end of life. The way they approach that problem will have more affect on the world than anything Apple or other "flavour of the modern mobile world" could do.

Re:The death spiral is continuing.

[ranton]

There is no sign of a death spiral in these layoffs. The article cites 1600 job openings Microsoft currently has posted on LinkedIn alone, so they are still growing. And each of these employees has 60 days to find new internal positions at Microsoft, so if their skills are still relevant they don't necessarily even need to leave Microsoft.

This is simply sign of a transitioning company that knows it cannot be successful simply sticking to the status quo.

Microsoft is leaning itself out

[Anonymous Coward]

I think Microsoft is saying one thing in public and doing just the opposite. It has not improved its mobile position in the least with Windows 10. Universal Apps is a flop on the desktop and even Xbox is selling half of what Playstation is for Sony. Windows 10 probably can't be considered a flop, but it certainly shows much in value to its users as sales flat lined after the free upgrade period. Even the Surface line appears to be struggling to expand in a market where cheap PC's are the only thing propping up sales. Office and cloud seem to be the only bright spot for Microsoft these days.

Microsoft's effective negative advertising

[Futurepower(R)]

Microsoft top managers decided to try to force everyone who isn't technically knowledgeable to move to the Windows 10 operating system so that Microsoft could offer "Apps", like the Android and Apple cell phone systems.

Microsoft ignored the fact that trying to sell "Apps" when people have work to do on their computers is not appropriate.

Windows 10 tries to force Microsoft's control, imitating the cell phone companies that, more and more, take control away from the customer and user.

That acted as extremely effective negative advertising. Almost every technically knowledgeable person is now aware of what they consider extreme abuse.

In my opinion, the negative advertising damages Microsoft and indicates that Microsoft top managers are not competent.

Re:Microsoft's effective negative advertising

[Gravis Zero]

Microsoft ignored the fact that trying to sell "Apps" when people have work to do on their computers is not appropriate.

The funny thing is that after all the abuse that you still don't realize that you don't own Windows, it's owns you and it always has. Only lately have they have chosen to blatantly exert their will.

Re:Microsoft's effective negative advertising

[hairyfeet]

"Almost every person who has used Win 10 for any length of time is now aware of what they consider extreme abuse."....FTFY.

I thought I got a lot of work wiping Win 8 for 7 but damned people HATE Windows 10 and for good reason, all it takes is MSFT forcing a shit driver that locks the PC into endless rebooot or having it just decide to install updates and shut down in the middle of them actually doing something for people to say "fuck this POS!" and demand any other Windows than 10. I've even had people bring by brand new in box Win 10 lappys just to have me wipe the thing before its ever even turned on, its gotten THAT bad a rep.

If they thought they had a shitload still running XP at its EOL I have a feeling when Win 7 hits EOL the numbers running 7/8/8.1 will still be crazy high.

Probably less than 10% don't use Windows.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, if we can trust Slashdot's recent reporting then about 6% run OS X or macOS, and a measly 2% run Linux. Of course, they're both totally irrelevant compared to Windows 10 with 24%, Windows 7 with 48%, Windows 8.1 with 7%, and Windows XP with 9%.

So probably less than 10% of PCs don't run Windows, which obviously means about 90% or more do.

I don't know where the hell this ClaraBow is coming from, and why that awful comment got modded up. It's not "hyperbole" or a "straight-out lie" to say that nearly every PC uses Windows, when it turns out that 90% or more do.

Speaking of hyperbole, the only hyperbole I see are statements like "There are a lot of PCs that don't run on Windows.", and "Chrome Os is making a huge dent", and "MS Office isn't as important and prevalent as they used to be.", and "they [Microsoft] are not as influential on the PC market as they used to be.".

Re:Does not matter.

[ColdWetDog]

Since the advent and maturation of the virtual machine, the base OS ju7st has not mattered. You can change OS as easily as drinking a coke - unless you are using the MS hypervisor Hyper V. What will keep MS in the running is Adobe products. There are no near Linux/OSX/Chrome equivalents. Eventually Adobe will port to Linux; but the market is not there yet.

As far as MS cutting employees, one question that intrudes on my mind is how many of those soon to be dismissed employees are H-1B's. I put my money on none/zero/zilch. This becomes important because every year MS is screaming for more H-1B's; yet in this round of cut employees there are up to 700 qualified employees.

What? Where are you?

The lovely and always happy-to-phone-home 'Creative Suite' runs just as poorly on OS X as it does on Windows.

Further, you might be surprised about all of the high end creative software that runs on Linux. Interestingly, that stuff is so high end that if you have to ask the price, you can't afford it.

I have a better solution....

[Lumpy]

They need to lay off 700 executives.

Saves more money and fixes a big problem with Microsoft... They are top heavy as hell

They're just bumping their stock price

[rsilvergun]

with layoffs. Believe it or not this is the result of deregulation of stock trading. It used to be companies couldn't buy their own stock (what with it being stock manipulation and all).That got changed during Reagan and when it did it started the trend to compensate executives with stocks; which in turn created all these perverse incentives for short term stock gains so the CEOs could boost their salaries. This is one effect of that. The constant mergers & acquisitions are another. It's one of those things like repealing Glass-Steagall that pretty much warped our entire economy.

The lesson? If you find that the behavior the regulation was meant to stop has stopped; well, maybe, just maybe the reason is there was a regulation to stop it.