Microsoft to Lay Off 18,000

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BobH
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Microsoft to Lay Off 18,000

Post by BobH »

This was in TV news here tonight, and I've seen stories on the web. My guess is that the new executive has a mandate to trim down and work on margins.

One wonders what this portends for Microsoft products and support. In my opinion, support has diminished considerably by the elimination of Help files for each product. One can usually find the information one needs from various online sites including Microsoft's, but I find it more difficult to locate specific information pertinent to problems without spending more time to find it. The user has to expend more effort; ergo Microsoft's support is diminished.

As for products, I tend to think of MS as having only 2 ('tho I know that is a gross over simplification): Windows in its various iterations and Microsoft Office. Those must surely be the cash cows with all others making marginal contributions to income.

From my point of view, I expect to see less frequent product upgrades or more frequent ones without substantive reasons for adopting them (other than MS abandoning support for older versions, e.g., WinXP). I also wonder if the corporate and market analyst pressure to get into mobile apps and telecommunications is not a fatal abandonment of core competencies.

But - then - what do I know? :scratch:
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viking33
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Re: Microsoft to Lay Off 18,000

Post by viking33 »

BobH wrote:This was in TV news here tonight, and I've seen stories on the web. My guess is that the new executive has a mandate to trim down and work on margins.

One wonders what this portends for Microsoft products and support. In my opinion, support has diminished considerably by the elimination of Help files for each product. One can usually find the information one needs from various online sites including Microsoft's, but I find it more difficult to locate specific information pertinent to problems without spending more time to find it. The user has to expend more effort; ergo Microsoft's support is diminished.

As for products, I tend to think of MS as having only 2 ('tho I know that is a gross over simplification): Windows in its various iterations and Microsoft Office. Those must surely be the cash cows with all others making marginal contributions to income.

From my point of view, I expect to see less frequent product upgrades or more frequent ones without substantive reasons for adopting them (other than MS abandoning support for older versions, e.g., WinXP). I also wonder if the corporate and market analyst pressure to get into mobile apps and telecommunications is not a fatal abandonment of core competencies.

But - then - what do I know? :scratch:
From what I heard, most of those unfortunates are from Nokia Corp., which MS had recently acquired. Not that it makes much difference where they are\were employed. :sad:
BOB
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DaveA
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Re: Microsoft to Lay Off 18,000

Post by DaveA »

This has been a Buzz word for the past month or so here in the Greater Redmond area.
Very few of those that got their notices today are in the Greater Redmond area.
Most of the ones getting notices today are in the 6 figure income bracket,
Last edited by DaveA on 18 Jul 2014, 03:39, edited 1 time in total.
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JoeP
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Re: Microsoft to Lay Off 18,000

Post by JoeP »

This round of layoffs is primarily the result of the acquisition of Nokia and was expected. The size is the surprise. It not unusual at all for a merger between two large companies to result in duplicate staff that ends up being eliminated.

Microsoft is much more than two products. See Where does Microsoft make money? for much more detail.

Joe
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