Microsoft axes 5,000 staff as Q2 profit dives 11%

Microsoft is slashing 5,000 jobs after it posted a profit of $4.17bn, or 47 cent per share, in its second quarter earnings report, undershooting Wall Street expectations. The software giant, which saw its shares fall 8.5 per cent to $17.88 following the announcement, said it would not be offering profit forecasts for the rest …

[Anonymous Coward]

percentage

5,000 from how many? Whilst we all feel for the unlucky ones, the significance lies in whether this is 5,000 of 30,000 total or 5,000 of 300,000 total.

[WeeDom]

Profits down to $4.17bn

Tough times do, indeed, call for tough measures.

[Anonymous Coward]

Greed??

OK they are not doing as well as they were, heck nobody is, but they made a PROFIT of $4BILLION, in 3 months! I'd be pissed if I got sacked of the back of that.

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple the new Microsoft ?

Apple $10 billion/qtr, Microsoft down to only $16billion/qtr.

Looks like selling cheap tat to a blind following for lots more than it's worth is paying off for Apple. Wonder where they got that business model from (hint - eBay sellers!!!).

Paris - incase no one else iconises her !!!!

[Jon Pratt]

this many....

5000 from 91,000

[Chris Lewis]

Re: percentage

As of 2008, nearly 90,000 employees globally: http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2008/06/microsoft_head_count_way_up_in_last_11_months_near.html

So 5.6%, if I must do the maths. :-)

[Mage]

Netbooks

Netbooks run almost given away XP or Linux.

WinMo/CE and Xbox has never really been profitable.

OEM Vista is MUCH cheaper than Retail

Retail Vista is not really selling.

The only surprising thing to me is that drop is not greater.

[Portent]

Linux

If they replace their Windows machines with Linux they could save on all that license cost and keep the staff.

Oh, wait...

[easyk]

doh

My brother just took at job at Microsoft R&D. I need to give him a call.

[Giles Jones]

@Apple the new Microsoft ?

Cheap tat? Aren't you talking about PCs with Windows and Xbox360s?

Red ring of death is costing Microsoft billions in warranty commitments. Microsoft releases cheap tat!

[Anonymous Coward]

Nice to know...

... that even with a profit of 4bn, they have no qualms about stabbing their staff in the back.

[Anonymous Coward]

it's worse than that

Microsoft has only *announced* 5k layoffs. They've been shedding contractors for six months now. Several thousand of 'em. There have also been "positions" cut. In this case the employee has so many days to find other work, or leave "voluntarily". They have to do it this way, or fire all their engineers on H1 visas.

So, it's not the 17000 cuts of the last months' rumors, but it's a pretty big deal here in Seattle. Job hunting will be especially exciting hereabouts with the city awash in unemployed Microsofties.

[Martin Lyne]

4 Billion

It doesn't you get as much as it used to..

You can only get ona and a half Microsoft™ Surface™'s for instance.

Perhaps MS shoudl have done the Satyam thing. Pretend you have 5000 more employees than you really do. Then when times are "tough" you shed them to keep the greedy shareholders happy.

1) Wealth -> Few

2) Profit! (for some)

3) Economy Fail

4) Epic Economy Fail

[Anonymous Coward]

@GREED

"OK they are not doing as well as they were, heck nobody is, but they made a PROFIT of $4BILLION, in 3 months! I'd be pissed if I got sacked of the back of that."

Someone beat me to it and I couldn't have put it better.

Totally incomprehensible......

[Doug Bostrom]

Just a start

We're going to see this get much worse, unless MS decides to take the long view and cut dividends in order to preserve some muscle for later. What's astonishing is how long it took them to see the handwriting on the wall and begin reversing their hiring/building/leasing binge. Astonishing, but after such a long run of success I suppose complacency is not really all that surprising.

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow - so even with a profit, they whack ...

So a company makes $4B profit, but it doesn't meet expectations, and 5000 people are gone?

Aren't these CEOs setting the groundwork for a Marx-like revolution? They rake in the cash - while sticking it to the underlings. Might not happen in my lifetime, but I hope they do enjoy the barbarians at the gate scenario they're creating for themselves.

And for the one talking about axing the H1B's - considering that H1Bs were "supposed" be be used to address a labor shortage, shouldn't they be the first to go? I think one can argue that there isn't a labor shortage anymore, unless you define that shortage as "lack of technological workers - willing to work for nothing."

Just sayin' ...

[Boris the Cockroach]

Lets hope

Its the vista team getting the boot as a reward for their stirling service in the cause of spreading Linux in all its forms

[Henry]

Credit Crunch fallout, Phase 2

Now we'll see if code bloat expands or projects get delayed because there are not enough coders to optimise routines and features within applications. Maybe it's already being done through AI software.

Maybe they'll delay Vista SP2. Or Office 14. Or everything except Zune.

Will be a real bummer if the techies got the shaft over the marketing types.

[Martin Fowler]

Taking the piss

I would be monumetally pissed if they told me i no longer had a job after making a quarterly profit of nearly $5 billion.

[Anonymous Coward]

When will Gates go to prison?

Too bad 5K people lose their job. It's likely to get much worse. When is Bill Gates going to prison for the numerous times Microsucks has been convicted of crimes?

[Gerry]

My Two Cents Worth

Revenue per share down by 2 cents so you make your staff pay by making them unemployed as if they are to blame. It's not as if M$ have made massive losses or something. This is not a uniquely Microshaft dirty deed but par for the course for them all the same.

[Fintan]

economists and madmen

Even with a profit of 4bn they have to leave folks off. yes its ridiculous but its the way companies on the stock exchange work.

The companies job is to make profit for their share holders.

so year 1 they make 5bn profit, the next year they are set a target of a 20% increase. so they need to make 6bn in year two. and then another 20% on year 3 so their targets are 7.5bn, and so on and so on.

its not enough to just break even or even make moderate profit. you have to live up to expectations.

Its a ridiculous situation. as the saying goes, only economists and madmen believe that growth can go on indefinitely.

its this crazy model that has sooo many large companies like Microsoft, Intel, Dell etc in up sh1t creak.

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be nice to see Microsucks go tits up

It would be nice to see Microsucks go tits up. Maybe the competent people there could start a new company that has some ethics and morals and then develop a decent O/S. The finishing touch would be to see Bill Gates go to prison for Microsucks anti-trust convictions. that would be sweet.

[Anonymous Coward]

value

""We will continue to ... deliver value to customers and shareholders".

So, sod the workers then!

[Tom]

Research and Development department

Is that left over from an aquisition?

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Tom (R&D)

"Is that left over from an aquisition?" No, that's how they call the reverse-engineering department.

[rasputinsDog]

a suggestion for the new m$ shorthand

m$--

[Toastan Buttar]

@ Even with a profit...

> I think one can argue that there isn't a labor shortage anymore,

> unless you define that shortage as "lack of technological

> workers - willing to work for nothing."

I thought that was the Linux 'business model' ? Either that,

or get a South African sugar daddy to pay you a decent wage.

[Anonymous Coward]

BSDs/GNULinux, many ways to monetize...

these. Needs people with skills/ability to do it.