Microsoft to ax 18,000 jobs this year, laying off more than 14% of total workforce

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  • Reply 61 of 107
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by TeaEarleGreyHot View Post

     

     

    In other words, MS should never have purchased Nokia.

     

    Somehow, we've got to stop the madness of these mergers and acquisitions--they seem to generate debt rather than profit, and they eliminate jobs, rather than generating them.  It's the opposite of what we should be encouraging business to be doing.  Keep small, keep competitive, keep the eggs in many baskets.


     

    I wouldn't say that.   

     

    I would say... They were 3 years late in purchasing Nokia.

     

    If they had purchased Nokia and build the Surface Tablets in 2010,  They had a chance to be a 3rd player vs Android and iOS.  Now... they are not a factor at all... too little too late... too short of runway to make surface a player.

  • Reply 62 of 107
    sockrolidsockrolid Posts: 2,789member

    Originally Posted by AppleInsider View Post

    The cuts being made under his watch are part of a major attempt to turn the company's fortunes around and take back lost market share in mobile and reinvigorate sales growth in PCs.

     

    Obviously "lost market share in mobile" means "market share lost by not selling Office for iPad."

    Corporate IT didn't jump through the buy-Surface-to-get-mobile-Office hoop.

    Now Office for iPad is a smash hit.  And I think it would have been a smash hit years ago as well.

     

    But "reinvigorate sales growth in PCs"?  Good luck with that.

    The PC market is mostly commoditized.  Generic.  And it's hard to get the market excited about generic products.

    PC sales will rise and fall with the economy, despite Microsoft's best (Windows 7) and worst efforts (Vista, 8).

    The real growth in computing is in mobile now.  And Microsoft is DOA in mobile.

  • Reply 63 of 107
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,335member
    Wishful thinking is not a plan. The massive spew of convoluted vision from Microsoft's leadership tells me that they have no idea about how they will survive. The best plans are brutally honest, salient, and simple. Microsoft has lost its way. Don't be surprised to see Bill G return in an active role, whether now or after they axe the next increment of 20K heads.
  • Reply 64 of 107
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    paul94544 wrote: »
    If MS were to go out of business that would cause the greatest productivity increase in 30 years

    Good one, probably true too!
  • Reply 65 of 107
    MacProMacPro Posts: 19,718member
    As much as I dislike just about everything MS has done, (except give Stevo $150 mill. and allow Apple to develop a much superior version of Office for the Mac), I hate to see this happen to people.

    I know it's part of life, but it's tough to be one of the laid off workers. Tough on the families, too.

    I wish them all the best! :)

    Chris

    Just for the record ... Office for the Mac was developed for the Mac by Microsoft (I have a set of the original disks), then a far smaller company than Apple, at the request and of the concept of Steve in 1983, in time for the launch or soon thereafter of the Mac in 1984. It didn't exist for a PC because at that time Gates had not yet stolen the Mac OS to develop Windows v1. As soon as he did reverse engineer Mac OS, he of course also purloined the Office concept for his then handlers IBM. He cleverly never signed anything over to IBM though thus allowing the back stab to IBM a few years later when he did the deal with the IBM clones. How IBM's lawyers didn't see this coming and prevent it, given IBM bank rolled Gates screwing over Steve, is beyond me.
  • Reply 66 of 107
    bugsnwbugsnw Posts: 717member

    Someone brought up a similar path between Jobs and Nadella upon returning. Let's set aside the return part...

     

    Nadella gets to the top spot and looks around and doesn't like what he sees. He also knows that this is a golden opportunity to cut jobs where wall street will reward him. Right now it looks prescient and smart. A year from now it will be criticized.

     

    Jobs came in and cut shit right out of the product matrix. Even things that seemed forward thinking (Newton) but weren't contributing or had a hazy future.

     

    That's where the paths seem to part. Jobs articulated a vision of making great products again and the rest would take care of itself. He had a massive tailwind with NeXTStep promising to springboard Apple's OS into an exciting, unknown future.

     

    Nadella has yet to do that. He has a short window to produce the equivalent of Jobs' iMac or even NeXTStep. Their strengths seem to be milking Office for Windows/Mac and Windows OS. Without 3,000 tiring, uninspiring words, how do they move forward?

  • Reply 67 of 107
    <div class="quote-container" data-huddler-embed="/t/181403/microsoft-to-ax-18-000-jobs-this-year-laying-off-more-than-14-of-total-workforce#post_2565398" data-huddler-embed-placeholder="false"><span>Quote:</span><div class="quote-block">Originally Posted by <strong>Suddenly Newton</strong> <a href="/t/181403/microsoft-to-ax-18-000-jobs-this-year-laying-off-more-than-14-of-total-workforce#post_2565398"><img src="/img/forum/go_quote.gif" class="inlineimg" alt="View Post"/></a><br/><br/><br />
    The rudder?</div></div><p> </p>And if the CEO was from the Netherlands...

    Not to make light of the layoffs, but it looks even more dramatic on the heels of the Apple/IBM announcement. It looks like, "Apple and IBM teamed up? Okay, we give up! Bring me a tall stack of pink slips." The good talent will get picked up, but it still sucks to have to get canned.

    Steve Jobs once told Walt Mossberg at All Things D that Apple wasn't good at strategic partnerships compared to Microsoft, and that is why (he thought) Apple would never succeed at OS licensing the way Microsoft did. He said it wasn't in Apple's DNA, or words to that effect.

    However this type of partnership with IBM sounds like a win win because it allows both companies to do what they are best at. Apple gets to continue being a vertical integrator designing the entire user experience from chips to retail sales, while IBM gets to offer corporate customers business solutions, services, and support. This is the kind of partnership that Apple could use, and I'm glad to see it offered.
  • Reply 68 of 107
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by SpamSandwich View Post



    In fairness, Microsoft needs to get rid of almost all Nokia employees. This is actually an absolutely necessary move.

    :no:

  • Reply 69 of 107
    In the same week, headlines for Apple doing major deal with IBM, and microsoft cutting 14% of it's work force.. Anyone else see a trend? It's pretty simple... Apple is kicking microsoft's tail in every category.
  • Reply 70 of 107
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    vagvoba wrote: »
    How many of these jobs will be cut in the US? Nokia doesn't have manufacturing facilities in the US. I have the feeling that out of the 18000 layoffs, very few will be in the US.
    According to their website they have factories in Brazil, China, Hungary, India, Mexico, South Korea, and Vietnam.
    http://www.nokia.com/global/about-us/people-and-planet/operations/production-facilities/production-facilities/
    Regarding engineering, marketing, sales, those employees are all over the world, especially the ones related to Nokia.

    Sadly when things like this happens the good get let go along with the bad. I would imagine big cuts would happen in Brazil first due to the nature of the economy there. But that won't be the only operation wiped out.

    In the end this just demonstrates how stupid MS purchase of Nokia was. A total waste of money. It would have been better for Nokia to go tits up before the MS purchase.
  • Reply 71 of 107
    vaporlandvaporland Posts: 358member
    Quoting the torso zombie from Return Of The Living Dead*

    "it hurts to be dead..."

    also

    "brains brains brains brains BRAAAAINS!..."

    *http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Return_of_the_Living_Dead
  • Reply 72 of 107
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    As much as I dislike just about everything MS has done, (except give Stevo $150 mill. and allow Apple to develop a much superior version of Office for the Mac), I hate to see this happen to people.

    I know it's part of life, but it's tough to be one of the laid off workers. Tough on the families, too.

    I wish them all the best! :)

    Chris
    This is most certainly true. Lay offs like this hit the useful as hard as the useless! In some cases the people laid off will never work in the cell phone industry again.
  • Reply 73 of 107
    Quote:

    Originally Posted by wizard69 View Post





    This is most certainly true. Lay offs like this hit the useful as hard as the useless! In some cases the people laid off will never work in the cell phone industry again.

    Yep, good points, Wiz. :)

  • Reply 74 of 107
    elehcdnelehcdn Posts: 388member

    I am surprised that the mainstream media hasn't come out and said that since MS is having to layoff it's workforce, Apple is dead.

     

    Usually this news = Apple Death Knell +1 ;)

     

    I do truly feel sorry for the employees.

  • Reply 75 of 107
    iaeen wrote: »

    If Microsoft goes under, you will lose 100% of the jobs rather than 14%

    Be still, my heart!!
  • Reply 76 of 107
    In the same week, headlines for Apple doing major deal with IBM, and microsoft cutting 14% of it's work force.. Anyone else see a trend? It's pretty simple... Apple is kicking microsoft's tail in every category.

    I can imagine that of the remaining Nokia employees, that morale is at an all time low. The executioner is only catching his breath before finishing the job.

    As a final insult, each fired employee was given a Surface RT (keyboard not included) as they were ushered out the door...
  • Reply 77 of 107
    rogifanrogifan Posts: 10,669member
    In the same week, headlines for Apple doing major deal with IBM, and microsoft cutting 14% of it's work force.. Anyone else see a trend? It's pretty simple... Apple is kicking microsoft's tail in every category.
    So that's why Microsoft stock is at a 14 year high right now?
  • Reply 78 of 107
    elijahg wrote: »
    Yup. They seem to have such a hard time in new product segments, apart from the Xbox, which is their only real home-grown success story. They add useless bloat that no one wants, using these new "features" as an attempt to justify incompatibility with new versions that are bundled on new PCs. This of course bumps up sales since people can't open the new format on their older version of Office/whatever.

    I think part of the reason why their "Windows" branded stuff (phones/tablets/media players etc) flops is due to the bad stigma attached to the Windows name. They don't seem to realise people associate Windows with buggy/slow/virus ridden/insecure/businessy and so continue plastering "Windows" on everything. People associate the same with their phones too, even if it's not really warranted as much. Xbox wasn't associated with Windows and enjoyed pretty good sales, which maybe be the disassociation of it and Windows. Though since most gamers use Windows anyway, if it was "Windows Xbox" they'd likely ignore the association (since they're usually a bit fanboyish toward MS).

    All you say is true, yet... all the Xbox cartons are free of the Microsoft name and logo (unless it's in small type somewhere). I still half-wonder if Microsoft wouldn't love to sell that off too if the right opportunity came along.
  • Reply 79 of 107
    donpedrodonpedro Posts: 15member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by digitalclips View Post





    He has been on the hot line to Blackberry for tips on this obviously ... image



    Losing jobs is fun for you I guess. You claim you are using Apple products since II,  so you may remember when Apple was laying off people and kissed M$ a$$ for $150 000 000. Great feeling, don't you agree

  • Reply 80 of 107
    tallest skiltallest skil Posts: 43,388member
    Originally Posted by DonPedro View Post

    ...you may remember when Apple was laying off people and kissed M$ a$$ for $150 000 000.

     

    Hey, you’ve made my post for me!

     

    Are you really that ignorant. 


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