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Microsoft Plans Up To 3,000 Job Cuts In a Sales Staff Overhaul To Fuel Cloud Growth (cnbc.com)

Posted by msmash on from the job-cuts dept.

Microsoft announced a major reorganization on Wednesday that will include thousands of layoffs, largely in sales. From a report: The job cuts amount to less that 10 percent of the company's total sales force, and about 75 percent of them will be outside the U.S., the company said. Reports from last week suggested this was going to happen, and that Microsoft was going to specifically focus on how it sells its cloud services product, Azure. Microsoft's cloud business has been booming over recent quarters -- Microsoft noted Azure sales growth of 93 percent last quarter. While Amazon has become a bigger competitor in the space, Microsoft's restructuring is to pivot to software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure.

44 comments

  1. While Amazon has become a bigger competitor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What?
    They already are #1. They aren't becoming bigger, they are the biggest.
    The only thing Azure has going for it is dirt simple exchange that can be licensed per user.

    1. Re:While Amazon has become a bigger competitor? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And vastly superior development tools, better corporate integration.

  2. MSFT annual rank and yank, actually by WillAffleckUW · · Score: 2

    This is a continuation of the sales staff cuts that the hatchet man that was Bill Gates CFO put in place.

    They do this all the time.

    It's based on an outmoded concept of how things should work, not how they actually work.

    --
    -- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
    1. Re: MSFT annual rank and yank, actually by dougdonovan · · Score: 1

      its all about the investors.

    2. Re:MSFT annual rank and yank, actually by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yeah, utter bullshit. MS have rarely done any significant stuff cuts in the last 20 years, maybe 3 or 4 times and always around significant change (e.g new company with large overlap, change of focus). This is just a change of focus one and is something all large organisations NEED to do otherwise you end up with a lot of dead wood that have skill sets that were once bleeding edge that are either now completely irrelevant or at best mediocre.

  3. Good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Its Sales

    Sales always were the fuckheads anyway

  4. All services, all the time ... by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 3, Funny

    Don't forget "Windows as a service." "Pay me now, and pay me later, and again, and again". Abuse of market dominance?

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:All services, all the time ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't you? Everyone and their mother has had the chance to consider the open source alternatives. Most have decided against it. Individuals, companies large and small, governments, and even militaries have decided that being beholded to a closed source operating system is better than hassling a little with the learning pains of switching to a free and open-source operating system (or even a partially-free operating system, like Ubuntu). At this point, Microsoft has all the signs they need: no one is going to abandon them, despite the cost. I think that is pretty ample evidence that they can safely raise the price.

    2. Re:All services, all the time ... by Grishnakh · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Exactly 100% correct. I keep pointing this out every time this topic comes up, and people act like I have three heads or something. They keep whining about how MS is "treating customers poorly", about how bad the update process is, etc., but any time I suggest changing vendors if they're unhappy with how they're being treated, they act like I'm insane, and that somehow MS has a duty to treat customers better and provide a better experience. They don't, and why should they? Customers will keep coming back for more, no matter how badly MS treats them, so MS might as well soak them for as much as they can. I sure don't feel any sympathy for them any more.

    3. Re:All services, all the time ... by chipschap · · Score: 1

      People have to vote with their dollars (or Euros or whatever). Nothing else makes the slightest impact.

      If Microsoft users have demonstrated they are willing to pay more and more for abuse, poor service, being spied upon, etc., they get what they pay for.

      Microsoft is a business with the express purpose of making money, and they'll do that to the maximum extent possible. While I don't like them, I don't blame them. They are beholden to shareholders and no one else.

    4. Re:All services, all the time ... by rtb61 · · Score: 1

      Technically people can also vote with their votes ie they can push laws to force greater customer respect out of M$, why fucking beg when you can demand. Still wont play, break them up, they'll learn one way or the other.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    5. Re:All services, all the time ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      AutoCAD and Photoshop.

  5. So what... by drew_92123 · · Score: 1

    This really isn't news, Microsoft makes cuts like this nearly every year, often larger... if anything this is a warning to those working near the affected MS offices that the job market is about to be flooded with more useless goons that even MS doesn't want around... I worked there for almost 6 years, trust me when I say most of the people they're letting go aren't worth their salt.

    1. Re: So what... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Goon here. I plan to enjoy the wonderful weather, and use the time to relax and be with y family before embarking on the next chapter. Nothing like paid time off during summer ðY

  6. Bye bye boxed software and licensing by ErichTheRed · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is all in sales, not technology. Being in a systems engineering/design role, I often get pulled in on meetings where the software and hardware sales guys are courting the CIOs and other executives. It's amazing how much money someone can make selling stuff like enterprise agreements, and equally amazing how much money they have to spend to get the CIOs to sign the paper. Expensive dinners, rounds of golf, sports tickets, you name it -- I've never tagged along on the strip club visits some CIOs I've worked with have demanded from their salespeople.

    I'm guessing Microsoft is getting rid of all the salespeople who are narrowly focused on closing these big licensing deals and trying to refocus everyone on selling Azure and subscriptions. That's the grand master plan -- get out of the boxed software business and force everyone to rent computing power and software tools from them, IBM mainframe style. It's an absolute license to print money -- all they need to do is provide power, cooling, network and hardware. We're doing a huge Azure-based project now and it's really interesting -- but it's eye-wateringly expensive when you think about the long term. The long term lock-in is what they're going for -- rather than buying a Windows Server license for $20K once, you pay over and over and over, just like companies do for Office 365.

    I just wish they'd slow down a little bit and let people catch up -- there are new features every week, major changes to existing ones very frequently and now Azure Stack is almost released. I think at some point they're going to have to slow it down just to nail down problems once things get to a certain size. (God help them the day someone figures out how to compromise Azure AD in an undetectable way.)

    1. Re:Bye bye boxed software and licensing by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      Azure is still built on a modified windows 2008 right?

      Well, windows server has a support cost, as does hardware, power & cooling, floor space....those "high costs" might not really be a bad deal

    2. Re:Bye bye boxed software and licensing by Tablizer · · Score: 1

      I just wish they'd [Azure] slow down a little bit and let people catch up

      Unless you are seeking resume bullet points or enjoy drama for drama's sake, it's usually best to let others be the guinea-pigs for new or fast-changing tech.

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    3. Re:Bye bye boxed software and licensing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Azure is built on straight hardware. They don't talk it up at all, but it's one of the nicer linux hosting environments.

    4. Re:Bye bye boxed software and licensing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In technology, the second mouse gets the cheese.

    5. Re:Bye bye boxed software and licensing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And then quickly replaced by a third mouse who only requires 1/4 of the cheese.

      Meanwhile, the first mouse is making more cheese than it knows what to do with by being a trailblazer.

    6. Re:Bye bye boxed software and licensing by pnutjam · · Score: 1

      Unless you are seeking resume bullet points

      You aren't?

      --
      Cheap storage VM.
    7. Re: Bye bye boxed software and licensing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Nope, broader than just sales.

    8. Re:Bye bye boxed software and licensing by mysidia · · Score: 1

      I often get pulled in on meetings where the software and hardware sales guys are courting the CIOs and other executives

      Frankly: This is the opposite of how it should work.... The CIOs ought to be asking the Engineers what products to buy. Let the software/hardware sales guys court the Engineers, Design, and Security teams, but at the end of the day, the products be chosen based on technical merit, quality, lack of undesirable characteristics, and their ability to actually efficiently the meet business requirements.

    9. Re:Bye bye boxed software and licensing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sadly that is usually just as disasterous as selling directly to the CIO or sometimes worse. Engineers, design and security teams tend to be focused on the here and now, not on where the business wants to be or where the business is headed. I see it all the time in IT and it is the reason IT is often seen as a cost centre rather than a place to innovate as IT staff don't tend to have good business sense or vision.

    10. Re:Bye bye boxed software and licensing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In technology the second mouse generally gets screwed, they don't get the reputation or trail blazer advantages and they don't get the cost advantages of those that wait longer. generally the second mouse is the one in line to get squished.

  7. $$$ MORE MONEY FOR GATES FOUNDATION $$$ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remember, the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation is funded by layoffs.

    So third world poverty can be alleviated by putting first world people into poverty. This is Philanthropy (as defined by Bill Gates)

  8. Re:Minimum wage drop in St-Louis by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Recently it was announced the first batch of Seattle min. wage studies had some significant flaws.

    But in general, decades of min. wage change studies show a mixed bag: some people gain and some lose. It's neither a panacea nor doom.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  9. 'Cloud' indeed by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

    The only 'cloud' I associate with Microsoft is the miasma they continually produce.

  10. The headline reads like newspeak... by chaseDigger · · Score: 1

    Honestly, how does cutting 3000 (!) workplaces equal a dramatic "fuelling" of growth? Sounds like a snippet straight from corporate BS press release.

    1. Re:The headline reads like newspeak... by ErichTheRed · · Score: 5, Insightful

      If those 3,000 weren't doing a whole lot, then it might be -- and this is coming from someone who really wants more stable employment relationships in the world.

      I've worked in big companies almost my whole career, both as an employee and a contractor. I've seen plenty of people who don't do tons of work and still manage to keep their jobs. The truth is that the bigger a company is, the easier it is for people to "hide out" and find a nice safe corner where they don't have to do a whole lot:
      - It's gotten way faster in the last 10 years or so, but it used to be that if you were an acquisition hire, it would take a very long time to lay off the person they didn't need.
      - Large organizations develop their own internal politics, and being a favorite of a well-connected executive or even middle manager is one way to get away without doing the best possible job.
      - A corollary to this is the fact that those who really know how to work the system have studied every single rule, custom and exception to the rule. They know exactly how every single internal organization decision is made, obsess over things like pay grades and vacation entitlements, and will always come out on the right side of any reorg simply because their second full-time job is internal tea leaf reading.
      - Large organizations also thrive on empire builders, and managers try to increase the number of employees they're managing by any means necessary. Latch on to someone who likes you, and you could get rewarded with the equivalent of a no-show job -- I've seen it happen.
      - It's also possible for really big companies to "lose" entire groups of people, as in, we know they're on the payroll but have no idea what that department does these days.
      - Fewer places allow this these days, but I've worked in jobs where there are levels upon levels of management for even the simplest tasks. What usually happens is the person doing a job gets promoted, then promotes the next in line so they don't have to directly manage the work, then on up the line. If a company has enough margin (like a consulting company for example,) this is how you wind up with a hierarchy of 8 account executives servicing the same customer.

      Microsoft is kind of like an IBM or AT&T pre-breakup in that regard. I'm sure there are plenty of people just hanging on because there's just not a lot of pressure cost-wise. One-off software revenue was huge for them, and now they're poised to vacuum in billions a month in rental fees.

    2. Re:The headline reads like newspeak... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've worked in big companies almost my whole career, both as an employee and a contractor.

      Sounds like for government as well.

    3. Re:The headline reads like newspeak... by butchersong · · Score: 1

      "Growth" to an MBA means net profit. If you fire a bunch of people and don't have to pay their salaries then in the very near-term you make more money. Cutting a bunch of sales staff though doesn't seem like the best way to fuel growth in the longterm... You lose them, the relationships they've built with their customers.. I'm sure it makes sense to someone.

    4. Re:The headline reads like newspeak... by gravewax · · Score: 1

      cutting out the weeds or in this case those focused on the more traditional models allows for better focus on the growth area. This is a business reality, when cuts are made for the "right" reasons it can be very positive for the business as it frees up funds and positions for those with the right focus.

  11. Re:Minimum wage drop in St-Louis by Rockoon · · Score: 1

    Do you think the people that lose think its not doom?

    Its the government actively harming people. Thats your mixed bag.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  12. QA by thegreatbob · · Score: 2

    How about getting some more in-house QA going for the Windows 10? It's got more bugs than a (sarcastic comparison to things with many bugs).

    --
    There is no XUL, only WebExtensions...
    1. Re:QA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Lets hope it includes a load of skype developers as well.

    2. Re:QA by antdude · · Score: 1

      Ditto. Please bring back QA and hire me! :(

      --
      Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
    3. Re:QA by Voyager529 · · Score: 1

      How about getting some more in-house QA going for the Windows 10? It's got more bugs than a (sarcastic comparison to things with many bugs).

      I loved this idea - "Want to continue working for Microsoft? Head across the campus and find your new desk in the QA department."

      Then I remembered that we're dealing with the SALES staff. Literally, the people whose job it is to convince other people that the product works properly as advertised, using as much BS as it takes to make the sale. They are the polar opposite of good QA types and would be guaranteed to either be doing nothing, or causing harm.

      No, MS needs to scour neighboring school districts and pay high school kids $100 for every unique bug they find, $200 if they opt to have it deposited in a college fund and major in a STEM field. They'll have that situation on lock in no time.

  13. I dont care by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I switched to Ubuntu

  14. Re:Minimum wage drop in St-Louis by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Well, I can see the logic: Given two choices, A and B, each with different trade-offs, but in which case the net benefits are roughly EQUAL, then go with the choice that's the least gov't interference.

    But generally conservatives claim the net benefits are clearly less for hikes. They don't make the above argument much, other than an indirect one such as "the more power the gov't has, the more things go wrong in general."

    They exaggerate this in my opinion. For one, gov't is fractured such that growth in Part X doesn't necessarily have much impact on Part Y. After all, a common complaint about gov't is that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. It's not One Big Killer Commie Blob like the right paints it.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  15. Cloud = vapor by chthon · · Score: 1

    Vapor = steam, fueled by adding 3000 jobs to the firebox.

  16. Re:Minimum wage drop in St-Louis by Rockoon · · Score: 1

    Well, I can see the logic: Given two choices, A and B, each with different trade-offs, but in which case the net benefits are roughly EQUAL, then go with the choice that's the least gov't interference.

    Good job rephrasing things in a completely fucking dishonesty bullshit way.

    The net benefits arent roughly equal. Thats the fucking issue when some people are harmed while others are helped. You dont get to just say that they are equal anyways.... thats called dishonesty you fucking lying fuck,

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  17. Re:Minimum wage drop in St-Louis by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    I didn't intend any manipulation of your statements. Any "problems" with rephrasing are purely unintentional, I assure you. I'm just not understanding your point. Your writing is not clear to me.

    Tip: Arguing over "the other guy's" motivations is usually pointless, for motivates usually cannot be objectively verified with current medical technology: only speculated on.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.