Microsoft's Financial Problems Mean Shutdowns, Not Just Mass Layoffs
Last month: Microsoft's Debt Grew 2.1 Billion Dollars in the Past 3 Months Alone or 8.2 Billion in the Past Half a Year
It's Friday today, news is slowing down, but we're beginning to see reports of plausible rumours. Microsoft will shut down some things, entirely!
Apparently the mass layoffs next week will be so big (trotting out liars to lie about their scale would not be unprecedented) that in some areas entire units will vanish. Whole teams will get scuttled for good.
What does this mean to Free software?
Well, for one thing, the biggest enemy and saboteur will become more feeble. Expect many layoffs in subsidiaries of Microsoft. This may mean GitHub. Many say LinkedIn. Like Skype, such acquisitions or subsidiaries only ever lose a lot of money.
Workers hear/learn from other workers what's coming:
As somebody put it 10 hours ago: "They are not going to hit earnings over the next 6 months without it, the dollar is very weak against the Euro/Yen which means all the money made overseas comes back to the US at 20% less than last year."
If the original rumour is true, then expect almost 30,000 Microsoft workers to be let go this year. This year alone.
Microsoft offers to deliver Vista 10 security patches for a while longer not because of demand or genuine care for users; it's because there's a bloodbath and Microsoft loses a ton of big clients. █