Microsoft to layoff 5,000 people. MICROSOFT!

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/01/microsoft-gives.html



Microsoft's Ballmer: Job cuts forced by 'once-in-a-lifetime economic conditions'

11:02 AM, January 22, 2009

Microsoft plans to fire people and hire people as it deals with what Chief Executive Steve Ballmer today called a "once-in-a-lifetime set of economic conditions." And the company thinks things will get worse before they get better.

Executives from the Redmond, Wash., company gave Wall Street more specifics about their plans for dealing with the deteriorating global economy. They include cutting thousands of jobs in response to slowing sales of the PCs that run its Windows and Office software and making some hires in areas of potential growth such as Web search.

"We’re certainly in the midst of a once-in-a-lifetime set of economic conditions," Ballmer said during a conference call after the company announced weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings and as many as 5,000 layoffs, or 5.5% of its workforce. "The economy is resetting to a lower level of business and consumer spending."

[antigop]

1. LAYOUT? Do you mean 'layoff"? n/t

[bunnies]

4. hmmm. Lets just say - they wont be bothering us anymore.

:rofl:

[Liberal_in_LA]

6. OOOPS! I created a new word!

[alfredo]

2. Apple has more cash on hand than MS. Talk about poetic justice.

[TheHeathen]

11. Outsourcing all manufacturing to China using slave labor

and then selling the China made crap for a premium price is poetic justice?

Apple is just your typical Conservative company, nothing more.

:eyes:

[alfredo]

12. Jobs is a Democrat. He has Al Gore on the board of directors. You know

of any US companies that produces their computer chips, displays or storage on US soil?

[TheHeathen]

16. I stated that "Apple" is just a typical Conservative company

Steve Jobs and Al Gore should be ashamed for allowing Apple to outsource manufacturing jobs to China.

"Americans need jobs" now more than ever.

[Deja Q]

24. And support jobs...

Meanwhile Steve just wants to rant on teacher unions; doing nothing to SOLVE the problems or contribute.

He's a phony.

The truth is out there.

[alfredo]

25. Jobs is an asshole, but he has kept the music industry from going

belly up. He gave them a new way of distributing music. Well they had little choice, the world was changing on them and they were petrified. Our arts are one of the few Made in America items people world wide still desire. He's already changed Hollywood, especially Disney. Pixar saved their butts.

We need assholes like Jobs to push industry to put some money into innovation and design. Look at screenshots of the new Windows 7. They've got the message as far as design is concerned. Don't know if it is shit in a new package, but somebody in the bowels of MS got a fuckin clue that people don't like looking at ugly things. Design is important, and Jobs was the one that forced to industry to see the utility of elegance.

If Apple brought production on shore, how much would you be willing to pay? Are their domestic manufacturers big enough to produce on the scale needed by Apple?


Conservative companies don't innovate. Conservative companies don't take risks. GM is a conservative company, Apple is not.

[TheHeathen]

27. Conservative companies don't innovate

I agree, but as steve Jobs once stated, We have always been ... Oh just watch the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRl0wuyiU1w

:)

[alfredo]

30. That saying is something like what Chet Atkins said about writers.

He said "Good writers borrow, Great writers steal." Everything new was somehow stolen from what was new in the past. The successful artist or businessman is the one that knows what's worth "stealing."


That video is a young Jobs. The industry was still swapping ideas or allowing access on many levels, so "stealing" was how they learned. The GNU turned that openness into a business model. He was quite an Iconoclast at that time. They were still flying a pirate flag over their headquarters.

[TheHeathen]

31. What did Steve Jobs learn

when he stole thousands of dollars from his good friend Steve Wozniak?

It seems to me that Steve Jobs had always been a thief, and Steve Jobs should be thankful that the Woz Is a forgiving man, If Jobs had screwed me out of thousands of dollars, I would have beat the hell out of him.

http://valleywag.gawker.com/359590/woz-ok-so-jobs-stole-from-me-but-he-also-made-the-ipod

[alfredo]

32. Like I said, he's an asshole, but he's done a good job at Apple and Pixar.

[TheHeathen]

33. he's done a good job at Apple and Pixar

Has he really?

I don't know what really goes on behind those closed doors at Apple, but I do know that Steve Jobs has taken credit for the work of others.

[alfredo]

35. Apple stock was at around $10 a share, it's product line bloated. The OS

though fine in many ways, was getting long of tooth. He took the best of his NeXt OS and used that in OSX. He made the UNIX underpinnings open source. He brought in Jonathan Ive. That was a terrific move. Ive and Jobs worked well together. They assembled a terrific design team. Jobs deserves a lot of the credit by assembling a that team and giving them a philosophy and a vision. Taking credit for other's work? Probably, but they may not have had those ideas or made those advances without the vision and resources of Apple.

Tim Cook looks to be his successor. He appears to be a good man for the job. Though he isn't as flashy as Jobs, he understands and respects goals and philosophy of Apple.

[Deja Q]

23. ROTFLMAO

http://www.computertakeback.com/corporate_accountability/index_new.cfm

Don't get me started on Al Gore's words vs his actions. Indeed, when Greenpeace got on Apple's case because they weren't doing jack for environmental issues (consumers did more to get Apple to change than anybody on Apple's board...)

Apple offshores jobs too. Started a couple years ago...

Please stop the idolization.

[bullwinkle428]

18. How many "conservative companies" do you know that would

donate $100,000 to help defeat Proposition 8 in California?

[TheHeathen]

21. Only $100,000

Apple has all this cash, but they only donated "$100,000"

Apple is a Conservative company.

:eyes:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. Perhaps they will be willing to give back some of the 20,000 plus

that schools charged to train people to be MS certified this and that.... people who couldn't didn't find the work that was so supposed to be out there.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. I hope I don't hear about a plethora of HB-1 Visas being issued this year.

[4 t 4]

8. I know there were many

announced (lay-outs, hehehe) today really glum and I am out of work so depressing, so depressing and then I watch people like Suze Orman and I want to shoot myself. This is how much you should be saving , this is how to pay down your 32 credit cards blah blah blah what if you don't have any of those things And no job. These are the people she should be addressing but noooo because then she would have to tell the truth, you are fucked! How about speaking out to all the people in Tent Cities Suze

[no_hypocrisy]

10. I've been laid off for 2 months too.

[Deja Q]

20. We're not as profitable as the audience Suze takes to.

:shrug:

[OhioChick]

26. You and me both.....

However, no job losses in India.

Microsoft to axe 5,000, no job cuts in India

NEW YORK: Starting with 1,400 job cuts, software giant Microsoft will slash 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months.

"Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, HR, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today," the company said in a statement.

The layoff, however, would not be impacting the Indian operations. "It's not going to impact us. No job cuts in India," a Microsoft India spokesperson said in New Delhi.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Microsoft_to_axe_5000_but_no_job_cuts_in_India/articleshow/4018194.cms

[stopbush]

7. On the bright side, with all the bugs in Windows/Vista it will be

years before those 5,000 people receive the e-mails informing them they're laid off.

;)

[Dogmudgeon]

9. That many more Linux programmers

If you liked Visual Basic, you'll LOVE Python.

Trust me on this one. I programmed VB from its DOS days until the end of Bush MisAdmin I. You will find Python to be easy to learn, and fun, as well. The entire language makes sense. Object programming is not obfuscated with layers and layers of detritus; it's right there, like a streaker. And Our Benevolent Dictator will not crush your dreams, sue your heirs and assigns, and kick your ass; he may even laugh at your jokes. Nothing is hidden in Python; everything is available -- at no cost.

And, if you want to hold on to your Windows desktop just a little longer, Python is fully compatible with it. It runs on more systems than Hitchhikers' Guide gags.

Linux itself needs just a tad more polish (that is, integration, or "idiot-proofing") to be the indisputable desktop rival ... this depression could be the undoing of the Beast of Redmond (and perhaps even the Lesser Beast of Cupertino) in more ways than simply cash-flow interruption.

Like a newly-hatched chick just inches from eternal darkness and ice, may you find solace in the comforting embrace of the Penguin ...

--p!

[Greyhound]

28. "lesser beast of Cupertino", is Oracle? The monstrosity that managed to pervert SQL? n/t

[aquart]

13. And Ballmer's paycut will be...............?

[Ichingcarpenter]

14. Its Thousands more than the 5000 -

Ballmer said that as many as 5,000 Microsoft jobs would be cut, as well as thousands of external jobs held by independent contractors and vendors. The reductions will be in the areas of research and development, marketing, sales, finance, legal, human resources and information technology, and about 1,400 of those cuts will occur today.

[onethatcares]

15. what he meant by "the economy is resetting to a lower level....."

means, the average working schmuck in the United States of America is gonna have to get used to living on 5 dollars a day. We've now definitely joined the race to the bottom.

[Deja Q]

22. Inference. Not fact.

Besides, with all the H1Bs freely coming here, they think $5/day is great. At least in their home countries... $5/day in America is zilch.

[1gobluedem]

17. Outrageous

Aren't layoffs only for throwaway 'rust belt' states like Michigan? :sarcasm:

We have been facing these 'once-in-a-lifetime economic conditions' for awhile now. But, because it's Microsoft and not a domestic auto manufacturer, NOW people will begin to pay attention to what the last eight years have cost this country.

[Deja Q]

19. No wonder they told me that a fix for a bug would be in a new product version and not a patch!

:wow:

Seems offshoring and lowering the bar on QC isn't enough for them to remain a 12 figure company (over $100 billion, right?)

Deflation spiral...

The moment some linux company makes a good Windows emulator, I'm switching. I will NOT give up Photoshop and my other "creative capitalism" applications, but until Windows can be replaced I am at a standstill and living with existing bugs. I will not buy a new version to have a bug fixed, the new version of which, judging by Microsoft's reputation the last 5 years, containing 50^20 new bugs.

[Greyhound]

29. Not counting the 40% of it's workforce that is already "temporary". n/t

[New Dawn]

34. "Geeks" need to start organizing themselves a union.

[Greyhound]

36. Good luck with that, both Ms. Greyhound and I tried (years before we met)

to get this going in the mid-late 90s when the corporations formed ITAA and began inundating Congress and the press with made up statistics and lies. Perhaps things are bad enough now that you can get some traction.

[AzDar]

37. HB-1 visas go first, right? Riiiiight.