Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today. These initiatives will reduce the company’s annual operating expense run rate by approximately $1.5 billion and reduce fiscal year 2009 capital expenditures by $700 million.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer stated that:
While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach
I'm quite sure that the stupidity he brought to the company - the chasing of everyone else's tail lights instead of being a leader in the industry, the "we're a marketing company, not a software company" view that Steve Ballmer is trying to force onto Microsoft and the continual harassment of Yahoo with bigger and bigger offers for a company who has really had their day (oh, that's right, Microsoft wants them for their advertising potential and email boxes) - well, I know who's name I'd be placing at the top of the "Sorry, we've made some shocking decisions of late and we need to lay people off so we can afford to correct these errors" list.
Next would be a great many of the PAMs - they are contractors, not employees, however removing funding for the seemingly large number of below-par PAMs would save Microsoft a lot of cash, allow them to pay those who do a good job enough to remain on for a subsequent contract, and maybe generate better Microsoft/Partner feelings which are probably at an all time low right now, and therefore generate Microsoft more income by having satisfied Partners who are willing to fight for them in the marketplace.
At this point, they could probably take a step back and not need to fire anyone else because their profits would be growing!
Regards,
The Outspoken Wookie
No comments:
Post a Comment