Microsoft Rumored To Lay Off Thousands Worldwide 506
nandemoari writes "It seems not even Microsoft is impervious to the effects of this increasingly painful recession. According to reports, the Redmond-based company is preparing to lay off about 17 per cent of its entire workforce in the coming months.
Despite its portfolio diversity — including operating systems, antivirus software, and video game consoles — Microsoft is clearly feeling the pressure applied by a tightening global economy. In fact, there seems to be a sense of emergency to the massive cuts (about 15,000 workers out of 90,000), which rumors suggest should be made official by January 15."
Last Week's "News" and Most Probably Inaccurate (Score:5, Informative)
A CNBC report out today appears to put to rest continued rumors of significant Microsoft layoffs coming this month.
In recent weeks, two blogs -- Mini-Microsoft and Fudzilla -- have both reported that Microsoft is preparing to lay off large numbers of employees before the company announces its second quarter earnings on Jan. 22.
Neither blogger quoted inside sources and both later backtracked on their reports.
Re:H1B issue will be key (Score:4, Informative)
"or the US could escape most of the cuts while the rest of the world gets layoffs"
If you read TFA, it implies that the cuts are expected to be heaviest overseas.
Re:Last Week's "News" and Most Probably Inaccurate (Score:4, Informative)
This is happening, people just don't want to go on record.
In the town I live, with a MS campus, this has been the fact for a while. Many people were given 60 days to find new jobs, with massive amounts of people taking other unfilled jobs internally. Since there has been a hiring freeze for a long time, there are lots of open jobs.
They'll probably eliminate a lot of 'positions' but not a lot of 'people.'
Re:More stock drops? (Score:2, Informative)
Microsoft is not (heavily, they might be a little bit here and there, anyway, it isn't substantial) leveraged, the market price of a share has no impact on the ability of the company to operate. It might affect acquisitions, but only huge ones that they can't afford to pay cash for.
Vista Adoption (Score:3, Informative)
Microsoft makes money on their OS and Office, everything else is break-even or a loss. Vista adoption rates by businesses have been dismal before the recession hit. They'll be a lot worse now. Microsoft is clearly expecting a bit earnings hit.
Re:Why? (Score:3, Informative)
Having a stock option is not the same thing as having actual stock. An option is just the right to buy stock at a predetermined price at some point in the future. As a rule, you only exercise that option when you actually want to sell the stock and take your money, since there is little to no upside to exercising the option and then holding on to the stock. Furthermore, all options that haven't been exercised already are likely worthless, since the stock price has come down so much, and will probably never be exercised.
However, Microsoft stopped giving out stock options in 2003, and started giving direct stock grants. I'm not sure, but I suspect that these are non-voting shares. Microsoft's executives and board could not care less about the wishes of non-voting stockholders. I suppose these stockholders could organize a class-action lawsuit against the board, claiming they are not living up to their fiduciary duties. If things get bad enough where this is likely to happen, though, Microsoft will have much bigger problems to worry about.
MODERATORS: Please note (Score:0, Informative)
"Erris" is just one of the sockpuppet [slashdot.org] accounts of the original poster. Please do not reward people who shill their own posts pretending to be multiple people.
Re:Analyts tend to agree with the Rumors. (Score:3, Informative)
And shilled it. Glad to see 2009 hasn't taken the utter inanity out of Twitter...
Re:Interesting Logic (Score:1, Informative)