01.13.12
Microsoft to Start 2012 With More Layoffs
Still axing
Summary: Microsoft is reportedly preparing to lay off many more people (enough to require public disclosure) as sales decline
Mr. Cringely predicts that Steve Ballmer will be ousted (or leave) this year. His prediction begins to seem quite reasonable given that more layoffs are reportedly coming. Layoffs at Microsoft have been going on quietly, but Microsoft need only report this to shareholders when it happens in large numbers (while offshoring and avoiding tax as a matter of routine, without disclosing that). We have a wiki page about Microsoft layoffs and this time too Microsoft boosters tried to downplay this news by writing stuff like “we’ve also heard rumblings of layoffs coming, but these rumors come up frequently and often are not borne out.”
Here is the original report and another Microsoft booster who writes:
Another year and another shake-up is coming to Microsoft. A restructuring of the team responsible for how Redmond is perceived and sells itself will be announced in the next 30 days, Bloomberg reports.
The same source tells us about product delays/postponement which probably turns out to be a cancellation (the monopolist “cans TV plans following poor reception”). Pro-Microsoft sources tend to misreport the news (in Microsoft’s favour), but one Microsoft-hostile source says:
The Redmond company, which harbours ambitions of becoming a content service provider much like Apple and Netflix, has been trying to set up its own video streaming service for well over a year. Now Reuters is reporting that the firm has shelved those plans following a less than enthusiastic response from the big media content studios.
TVs will most likely continue to run Linux and Android. Even Canonical is trying to enter this market now (as revealed in CES). Microsoft’s long list of dead products will keep growing (we no longer expand it or research the subject) and the executive retreat will most likely continue (these wiki pages are out of date since we stopped tracking the subject).
Microsoft shrinks as desktops/laptops decline and even Microsoft finally admits this (having denied it before). To quote:
Senior Microsoft executives are warning that PC sales in the last quarter will be lower than expected, saying the effects of the floods in Thailand are having a lingering impact.
CFO Tami Reller told a JPMorgan Chase & Co. conference that the flooding was causing the PC industry more serious problems than had been expected. Analysts are predicting flat sales or a slight decline Reller said, but she warned that the figures could be significantly lower for some time to come, which will mean reduced Windows licensing and application revenues.
Microsoft is whining about natural disasters as an excuse that exempts Microsoft itself from blame. Hilarious. █
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Michael said,
January 13, 2012 at 3:41 pm
First, good to see your site is back up. Hope all is OK… ok, onto commentary:
FUD:
Microsoft may or may not have layoffs… in a year when the computer industry as a whole saw problems.
This is not a shock. But you feel the need to make up stories about companies being “Microsoft Boosters”… in other words, even with this story you could not stop yourself from making things up.
Apple is also reportedly looking into this market. They are not likely to be that early in the market, but as they did with desktop computers, MP3 players, cell phones, and tablets, it would not be shocking to see them re-invent this category only to have the rest of the industry play catch-up and copy them (as Android and its hardware makers copy Apple now). Only time will tell… Apple can only pull so many rabbits out of its hat – but that hat does seem to be amazingly large.
FUD:
Had you pointed out how both Apple and desktop Linux seem to be getting an increase in user share and, at least with OS X, a huge bump in raw numbers, you might have been able to make a more solid point. As it is, you gave no reason to think the problem is anything other than the hardware shortages. You really are not good at supporting your claims.
Mikko said,
January 18, 2012 at 8:27 am
Apple will make a tv and then sue Samsung complaining that their tv looks like a large ipad
Michael Reply:
January 18th, 2012 at 10:46 am
This is an interesting prediction. When do you think it will come to pass?