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NEWS

Insiders Insist Microsoft Will Make Job Cuts

Rob Crossley's picture

By Rob Crossley

January 15, 2009

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Further reports are speculating that Microsoft is considering “significant” work force reductions, as the Wall Street Journal gets a tip-off from new sources.

It’s not the first time that people claiming to be familiar with the matter have anonymously alleged that Microsoft will make cuts across various divisions. Over the Christmas period, various news sites opened rumors that Microsoft will be cutting as many as 15,000 employees from its workforce on Jan 15.

New speculation has pushed that date back, with the WSJ claiming that Microsoft may be announcing the alleged layoffs as early as next week, as the company heads for its quarterly earnings report.

Following the first wave of rumors, Microsoft told Edge it wouldn’t comment, yet pointed to a Microsoft blog stating that “massive layoffs” were “unlikely”.

The Journal also suggested that any layoffs that Microsoft announces will likely be far less the previously-suggested figure of 15,000, while at the same time the WSJ is told that the firm’s plans to downsize could be circumvented through alternative methods of saving costs.

Insiders close to the company did not mention Microsoft's Xbox division.

Source: Wall Street Journal (preview only for non-subscribers)

Kim_Naroz's picture
On January 15th Kim_Naroz said:

The thing that really surprised me in the first place was the rapid rate that Microsoft was actually hiring people. I looked at Microsoft when they had just under 70,000 employees...But just a short time later they had over 90,000 employees. I've heard that Microsoft's form of "layoffs" will be not hiring new employees to replace employees who retire.

ArronC07's picture
On January 18th ArronC07 said:

Photobucket

Rider_on_the_Storm's picture
On January 15th Rider_on_the_Storm said:

Kim, nobody cares what you think anymore!

Top_Dollar's picture
On January 15th Top_Dollar said:

Doesn't surprise me. Everybody is feeling the heat of credit crunch.

grognard66's picture
On January 15th grognard66 said:

I'm sure MS (and just about every public company) is going to announce some layoffs this quarter. In MS' case, they'll probably just severely cut back on contractors as opposed to actual employees. As disgusting as it sounds, many public companies will be downsizing, even if they don't have to. This is often done simply to satisfy the concerns of their shareholders to demonstrate that they are being proactive about holding costs in line during a recession. Ironically, this just exacerbates the downturn creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Stock traders love layoffs.