Microsoft may announce biggest round of layoffs in company history this week - report

Posted:
in General Discussion edited July 2014
Redmond, Wash., software giant Microsoft, which has struggled to find an answer to the success of Apple's iPad and iPhone, is said to be planning major staff reductions that could be the single biggest round of layoffs in the company's history.

Surface


The layoffs could be announced this week, and may top the 5,800 jobs that the company cut in 2009, according to unnamed sources who spoke with Bloomberg. The reductions are said to be part of a restructuring planned to reduce overlaps between Microsoft's mobile division and the Nokia Oyj handset unit it acquired last year for $7.2 billion.

That purchase of Nokia added some 30,000 employees to Microsoft's payroll, bringing its total number of personnel to nearly 130,000 as of early June.

The cost cutting measures are just the latest in a string of changes for the company, as it attempts to reclaim some of its past glory since lost to mobile devices, particularly Apple's iPhone and iPad. Microsoft was a major player in the smartphone space before the iPhone and devices running Google's Android took over the market, and sales of low-end Windows PCs have been hurt by the success of the iPad.

The biggest recent shakeup for Microsoft was the ouster of former Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, who many pundits and investors blamed for an inability to adapt in a changing mobile market. His successor, Satya Nadella, officially took over as CEO in February.

Nadella
Satya Nadella. | Source: Microsoft


While Microsoft was caught flat-footed by the iPhone and iPad, it took the company even longer to bring its popular Office suite to the iPad. Office for iPad became available this March, four years after Apple's market leading tablet first hit store shelves.

Apple's recent success undoubtedly helped push Microsoft into the hardware space, where the company develops its own hybrid tablet-laptop Surface devices, along with the recently acquired Nokia handset division, and even rumors of a forthcoming smart watch. Those moves mark a major change for Microsoft, which previously focused largely on software and services under the regime of Ballmer.
«1345

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 84
    richlrichl Posts: 2,213member

    Sounds like it will be mostly ex-Nokia staff. 

  • Reply 2 of 84
    boeyc15boeyc15 Posts: 986member
    And good luck with all that. IMO on the business side, they are probably pretty good for a very long time. Very large firms/governments etc are going to loath changing to any alternative to Office/Windows. But the consumer side... That's a tough nut to crack.... however they are throwing tons of money at it. It will be interesting.
  • Reply 3 of 84
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by RichL View Post

     

    Sounds like it will be mostly ex-Nokia staff. 


    if you read this   and this ,   getting out of Hardware is a given, and implicitly, deprecating Windows OS as a profit leader, and focusing on cloud services (azure) and apps (outlook.com, office365, oneNote).

  • Reply 4 of 84
    chandrachandra Posts: 26member
    MS should start writing software for Apple or go back to it's ill-gotten roots MS-DOS.
  • Reply 5 of 84
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by boeyc15 View Post



    And good luck with all that. IMO on the business side, they are probably pretty good for a very long time. Very large firms/governments etc are going to loath changing to any alternative to Office/Windows. But the consumer side... That's a tough nut to crack.... however they are throwing tons of money at it. It will be interesting.

    long in gov't/corp space is 7 years.   7 years ago the iPhone was introduced.   Seems like yesterday.

     

    What I'm saying is, Windows Server die like AS/400 did for IBM (that was 2000 when they killed it).  Windows Server is less like a mainframe, because IBM is still making mainframes.  Is there a compelling reason for for Windows Server?  Other than Active Directory?  which is one VPN away from being served in the cloud.  

  • Reply 6 of 84
    revenantrevenant Posts: 621member
    good news is everyone gets to leave with a parting gift- a surface pro and a signed photo of steve balmer doing the monkey dance.
  • Reply 7 of 84
    b9botb9bot Posts: 238member

    They have been struggling not just with iPad and iPhone competition but there biggest market Windows. Windows 8 is a total failure, nobody wants it or likes it. It is the biggest tool since Windows Vista. Trying to force to GUI's into one operating system is just stupid especially trying to make a desktop work like a tablet when there is no tablet functionality. 

  • Reply 8 of 84
    stevenozstevenoz Posts: 314member
    At least those released will be able to buy a Mac without being looked at askance by MS co-workers.

    Worth it, in my book.
  • Reply 9 of 84
    mpantonempantone Posts: 2,033member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Chandra View Post



    MS should start writing software for Apple or go back to it's ill-gotten roots MS-DOS.

    Note that Microsoft already writes software for Apple, including Office for OS X as well as Office apps for iOS (the latter were belatedly created). The latter is what they have mostly stuck with since Gates left and it proved to be the wrong path.

     

    Remember, Gates announced in June 2006 that he would phase out of day-to-day operations at Microsoft over a two-year span. That was a full year before Apple shipped the original iPhone.

     

    The real issue is that Microsoft has done a piss poor job in the mobile sector. This isn't just about Microsoft being late in the game with Office for iPad. It's also about their stumblings in re-imagining Windows for mobile devices.
  • Reply 10 of 84
    bdkennedy1bdkennedy1 Posts: 1,459member
    If Microsoft isn't in the process of re-writing an operating system from scratch, they are dead.
  • Reply 11 of 84
    blazarblazar Posts: 270member
    Its not like microsoft is broke, they could rise like a phoenix just like apple...

    Probabilty unknown of course. They monkey dance might be patented...
  • Reply 12 of 84
    apple ][apple ][ Posts: 9,233member

    What a shock! (not!).

  • Reply 13 of 84
    tbstephtbsteph Posts: 95member
    Wow! This article contains enough hyperbole, false statements and plain BS to even amaze James Carney. Maybe AppleInsider should just stick to reporting Apple news and forgo commenting on Microsoft - since their bias is so blinding reality is undiscoverable.
  • Reply 14 of 84
    hypoluxahypoluxa Posts: 694member
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by Chandra View Post



    MS should start writing software for Apple or go back to it's ill-gotten roots MS-DOS.

    I second that notion. Software is where they should continue in. Leave the OS/hardware market. They produce the tackiest HW. Sans the XBox. That seemed to have worked for them, except didnt they lose money producing it or whatever?

  • Reply 15 of 84
    singularitysingularity Posts: 1,328member
    bdkennedy1 wrote: »
    If Microsoft isn't in the process of re-writing an operating system from scratch, they are dead.
    They seem to be doing quite well for a walking corpse. Maybe they are waiting for Darryl to fire the headshot
  • Reply 16 of 84

    "Rot row, Astro!" :(

  • Reply 17 of 84
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    I just visited the Verge and didn't see one story about Microsoft's potential layoffs. There was however a story about senator Cory Booker taking selfies with other senators. Wow is that site going downhill.
  • Reply 18 of 84
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    They focused on software under Ballmer? Uh, no. They introduced the Zune under him, and directly criticized and mocked the iPhone as the "most expensive phone in the world." Ballmer stupidly tried to compete with Apple on hardware, the very mistake Apple made in the 1980s.
  • Reply 19 of 84
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,176member
    rogifan wrote: »
    I just visited the Verge and didn't see one story about Microsoft's potential layoffs. There was however a story about senator Cory Booker taking selfies with other senators. Wow is that site going downhill.

    The Verge mentioned it almost a week ago.
    http://www.theverge.com/2014/7/10/5887143/satya-nadella-microsoft-ceo-employee-email
  • Reply 20 of 84
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    gatorguy wrote: »
    I'm referring to the Bloomberg report that specifically mentioned layoffs might come this week. That story hit yesterday evening.
Sign In or Register to comment.