Summary: Microsoft rushes to put out the fire by claiming that a death of this whole unit (Live Labs) is just a part of reorganisation

THE high pace at which Microsoft products get axed makes it reasonable to expect more layoffs (those working on dead products or in dead business units).

Tim from OpenBytes told us yesterday that Dr. Gary William Flake had quit Microsoft. "I have resigned from Microsoft," he wrote. Who is Dr. Flake? It's this guy, the Research Leader of Microsoft's Live Labs. He's out.

The leader of Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Live Labs research team resigned on Friday, the latest in a series of high-profile departures from the software giant.

Later on it turned out in the Seattle blogs/sites (Microsoft boosters in both these cases) that "Microsoft kills Live Labs" and for Microsoft to claim that it just "folds Live Labs into Bing" is a silly coverup. The company just wants to make it look "not as bad". We gave many such examples before ("reorg" is a famous word they use for damage control). Bong [sic] too is being abandoned to a certain extent as Microsoft's staff runs over to Yahoo! and grabs what's left of it. We gave an example just days ago.

"The only part of Yahoo that is safe is Yahoo Japan, thanks to Jerry Yang and the rest of the Yahoo Japan board of directors resisting MS Bing and going instead with Google," says our reader 'Chips'. "Yahoo under Carol Bartz is like the mouse being eaten by the snake, not a pretty sight. [he added this news link]

"The big layoffs and cutting back, however, will not come until Ballmer leaves."

Cringely believes that Microsoft should lay off up to half of its staff. There are not many products at Microsoft which actually make a profit. ⬆

"I was out with a couple of Silicon Valley software guys in New York the other night and got their view of Microsoft’s finances. Microsoft makes 60 percent of its profits on Windows, 60 percent on Office, and minus 20 percent on everything else, they said. "

--Technology & Finance