07.15.09
Journal Confirms Microsoft Looks to Shed Over 2,000 Employees, Microsoft Employee Thinks 15,000 More Should be Let Go
Summary: The Wall Street Journal on Razorfish sale and some new numbers from Mini Microsoft
AT THE END of last month we showed that Microsoft was preparing to cut another 2,000+ jobs. This is now confirmed by the Wall Street Journal, which speaks about Microsoft looking to pass Razorfish staff to another company and take some cash which it really needs because of debt.
Microsoft is pitching five of the world’s biggest advertising companies a deal to buy its digital ad agency Razorfish — and to use Microsoft’s advertising technologies and possibly buy hundreds of millions of dollars of ad space across its Web properties — according to executives familiar with the situation.
By selling Razorfish, Microsoft will not be able to raise much money or significantly improve profit, but a prominent Microsoft blogger believes that with Microsoft’s results (due next week) more layoffs may come. After all, Microsoft did nothing to reverse the trend from last quarter (earnings were down 32% due to GNU/Linux in part, mostly because of margin erosion) and no important products are coming out any time soon.
At Microsoft a lot more positions still need to go to achieve efficiency and focus. 15,000 more is my magic number [of people to lay off]. It’s not personal.
According to the Microsoft-sponsored press, unemployment in Microsoft’s home state rose sharply. This is interesting because Microsoft stimulates the economy there by seeding a circulation of money and the real scale of Microsoft layoffs is not known (there are contract and temporary workers whom Microsoft tells its investors nothing about).
It might be a bit of a stretch, but watch the following brand-new video and consider our take on it.
Ballmer Goes Nuts Again, Gets Confused As to What Type of Venue He’s At
[...] is he a horrible public speaker. If Microsoft wants to revamp their image, it starts from the top
Does Steve Ballmer know that on July 23rd Microsoft’s profits will fall another 30% or so? He should have a rough idea ahead of time (actually making room for inside-trading, but that’s another matter), so watch how he goes semi-psychotic and already blames the economy, in advance. He also gives the impression that Vista 7 is all Microsoft has left to rely on, but no sooner than Q4 will it even exist as a product. This eccentric appearance from Steve Ballmer is rather telling. █
“There is such an overvaluation of technology stocks that it is absurd. I would include our stock in that category. It is bad for the long-term worth of the economy.”
–Steve Ballmer
David Gerard said,
July 15, 2009 at 7:46 am
Mini-Microsoft is very interesting, because he’s inside the Borg and speaking mostly to others inside. The posts and comments give us a look inside MS employees’ heads.
I remember Mini crowing about OOXML getting through ISO. Not a peep since then though.
(I got my first .docx in email yesterday. Google translated it to HTML quite well though.)
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 7:50 am
I got my first one last week. I didn’t touch it.
David Gerard Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 8:24 am
This was from a recruiter, so I did in fact want it
IT recruiters seem to be picked for inability to work or understand computers.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 8:34 am
It wasn’t for a UNIX job, was it?
David Gerard Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Solaris and Red Hat, no less!
Recruiter emails are one reason I have to check my spam folder very carefully. They appear to be the people spam is written to imitate. Just the people I want between me and my next job.
(in fairness, over half my jobs ever have been through recruiters, and the good ones are worth their weight in gold. The not so good ones …)
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 9:23 am
It would be worse if they required submission of resumes as OOXML.
David Gerard Reply:
July 15th, 2009 at 9:28 am
.DOC (Word 97-2003) is the practical Standard.
I was most surprised and pleased to see that jobserve.com now takes doc, txt, rtf and pdf. Last time I was looking, they only took doc. I write my CV in OOo and save a .doc copy for the recruiters.