Bonum Certa Men Certa

When It Comes to Financial Spin-Doctoring, Microsoft is Now Marketers Marketers Marketers Marketers

Microsoft exec tells employees to improve its stock performance in lieu of raises



Stock price 'most important lever' to get pay raise, Microsoft CMO tells employees



Microsoft CMO tells employees the stock price is the ‘most important lever’ to get a pay raise after cashing out on $4.4 million worth of stock this month



Microsoft CMO tells employees the stock price is the ‘most important lever’ to get a pay raise after cashing out on $4.4 million worth of stock this month



Summary: Marketers from Microsoft -- and former Chief Marketing Officers or HR VPs too -- are trying to spin Microsoft's collapsing business units (and mass layoffs that are under-reported and grossly under-counted in the media); how much of Microsoft's remaining financial activity is just financialization and debt-loading (e.g. buying companies to offload debt onto them)?

Microsoft is 80 billion dollars in debt (a lot higher than its cash reserves or bank balance) and the layoffs carry on and on this year (example from this past Friday). The bleeding does not stop.



"The bleeding does not stop."As an associate put it this morning, "it is telling that Microsoft is [as per news sites] linking the possibility of salary raises to stock price because it suggest that Microsoft makes most of its money through financialization and that the Office format monopoly rents are weak or gone and that the OEM monopoly rents are weak or probably gone, since they are now basically giving away Windows." (Almost no cost, as the competition with GNU/Linux is fierce)

"Notice how the media now quotes as financial expert a marketing person."We're going to see some interesting things ahead because government bailouts will be harder for Microsoft to secure (Trump and Biden bailed Microsoft out with "defence" contracts worth tens of billions of dollars). Now that the US government grapples with the possibility of default (aside from almost $32 trillion in national debt there is also close to $18 trillion in US household debt), not to mention many failing banks (hundreds more are said to be on the verge of collapse right now) there are not many chips left on the table. Will people's pensions be thrown at the stock market, tied to stocks where the valuation is massively inflated and unrealistic?

Notice how the media now quotes as financial expert a marketing person*. To quote: "Microsoft's Chief Marketing Officer Chris Capossela has reportedly told employees that "the most important lever for almost all our employees' compensation upside is the stock price.""

______ * That Microsoft "report" and similar ones (same 'script') has helped distract from the layoffs (we saw numerous of the same spiel, an identical 'script'). Last week Microsoft spread a bunch of fluff about salaries and salary increases while many layoffs were quietly signed off.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Fedora Already Lost Its Soul Under IBM
Fedora used to be very strict compared to many other distros and it had attracted very bright volunteers
Links 17/04/2025: Calling Whistleblowers at Microsoft, Slop Doing More Harm Everywhere
Links for the day
Open Source Initiative (OSI) Privacy Fiasco in Detail: In Conclusion and Enforcement Action Proceeds Against OSI at the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA)
There's too much to cover in one single part
 
All Your "Github Projects" Will be Gone One Day (Just Like Skype)
If you have code you wish to share and keep, then start learning how to do so on your own
To Understand Who's Truly Controlling You Follow the Trail of Censorship (or Self-Censorship)
Do not let media steal and steer the narrative; CoCs are not about "social justice", they're about corporate domination
Microsoft is Still Attacking GNU/Linux and the Net
Microsoft bribed the government using money that did not even exist
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 17, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 17, 2025
Gemini Links 18/04/2025: Pinephone Pro and Linux is too Easy
Links for the day
Links 17/04/2025: Russian Bot Farms Infect TikTok (Which US Government and SCOTUS Decided to Block January 19), US Hardware Stocks Crash Due to Tariffs
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/04/2025: Sticking to Free Software, Smolnet, and Counting the Reals
Links for the day
When You Fail to Filter Your Clients You End Up SLAPPing Reporters on Behalf of Bad People From Microsoft in Another Continent
“American Psycho”
Links 17/04/2025: LayoffBot and Tesla Cheats Buyers
Links for the day
Gemnini Links 17/04/2025: Role of Language and Back to Mutt for E-mail
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 16, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 16, 2025
Trump Authority (CA) With a Trump NSA is All About Security, But Whose?
A "turnkey tyranny", as the NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake loved to call it
Confirming IBM Shutdowns and Layoffs Today
It's not over yet
Gemini Links 16/04/2025: The 2010s Are Calling and Why "Tools Will Not Liberate Us"
Links for the day
You Should Probably Self-Host Your E-mail and Never Use a Web Browser for Mail
Does anyone still believe Gmail is "free"?
Links 16/04/2025: Cliff Lynch RIP, More Attacks on Science (NASA)
Links for the day
StatCounter Shows the Market Share of Vista 11 is Decreasing in Ukraine This Year
Microsoft abandoning Vista 10 users would be a victory for Vladimir Putin
Google Promotes Fake Articles (LLM Slop) Instead of Originals, Relaying Microsoft's Linux FUD Emanating From Microsoft LLMs
Shame on Google for participating in the slopfest
In Some Countries the Largest OEMs Already Dump Microsoft Windows
Windows at 18.9%, Android 60.2%
The "Gold" Rule: Taking Money for Reputation Laundering and Openwashing Under the "Linux" Banner
Seller of expensive toilet paper, Jim Zemlin
LLM Slop Says Slop is "coming for white-collar jobs. Microsoft’s layoffs are just the start"
Look what the Web has become
Microsoft Down From 100% to 10% in Myanmar/Burma
only about 4% of Web requests in Myanmar/Burma come from Vista 11, soon to be the only "supported" version of Windows
Reporting Facts About Violence Against Women Deserves Awards, Not Frivolous Lawsuits and Threats
What is Microsoft's stance on women's safety?
Linux.com as Spamfarm of the Linux Foundation, Partner of the Gates Foundation
They no longer publish articles
When Fedora Said It Was Looking to Integrate "AI" It Meant Promoting Microsoft's Proprietary Spyware and GPL-Violating Slop
When they say "AI" they mean Microsoft
Slopwatch: The Typical Slopfarms and the 'Brian Fagioli Dilemma'
To the Web and to society (exposed to the Web) LLMs are a net negative
It Used to be IBM, Now It's Microsoft (Why You Need to Fire Microsofters or CIOs Working for Microsoft)
Typically the only effective solution is to identity and remove Microsofters from one's project/organisation (before they can bring more Microsofters in)
IBM Closes Offices and Labs in the United States to Open New Ones in India
It's not layoffs per se; they're substituting/swapping veteran employees for lesser-paid ones
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Gemini Links 16/04/2025: IndieWeb Carnival, Tinylog RFC, "Focus, the Web and Gemini"
Links for the day