Microsoft swings axe at 18,000 bods in its largest ever round of layoffs Microsoft is preparing to lay off as many as 18,000 workers – the biggest loss of heads in the software giant’s history – and the Nokia unit is bearing the brunt. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Thursday it would cut 14 percent of its 127,000-strong workforce over the next 12 months. It dropped the news before the markets …
When Stephen Elope was parachuted into Nokia? (were the Finns so dumb?).
Ms is now out to destroy value and Nokia is a shell.
Maybe they can start a fork of Android / windows/whatever combination, under the Sailfish/Jolla brand and save their talents to utilise it productively. Such a shame they had to go, though.
One of the larger employers in the city will close. Papers suggest Microsoft's former units at Peltola and Technology Village is out. They're big sites, and I can't see many takers for the buildings.
Knock-on effect for Oulu University's Radio facility, I guess.
This place'll be a ghost town soon....
The bright side: this will put an end to the endless supply of money the local ice hockey team has been enjoying the past 10 years or so. And my favourite team since childhood (Tappara) will finally stand a chance at the finals next year perhaps!! (Yes, still trying to recover from the last season finals.)
Alignment.
Must be a synonym for groupthink. Whenever I hear the word "alignment" used in a corporate setting, it always looks on closer examination to be used as a shorthand/euphemism for "Here's what you are to think. No variations will be permitted. Any attempts to vary will be met with the most merciless browbeating. Good luck; have a nice day."
"Alignment", "Teamwork", and "Synergy", whenever used in a corporate setting make me cringe in anticipation of someone using a hammer drill on my lower molars.
Please accept my apologies; I am not normally cynical.
"And two thirds of the cuts are coming from former Nokia staff who probably have more expertise in mobile and devices than the rest of Microsoft put together."
Yes, but crucially, they're not American jobs that are being lost, so nobody in those united states gives a crap.
On the flip side, wouldn't it be nice if British companies showed half as much patriotism? There'd be a lot fewer "technology parks" in India, and a lot fewer unemployed IT staffers over here.
If you can find the logic in this , i can't . Firing 18000 people is no accomplishment , it's an epic failure.
I totally wish the workers and families good luck. But rewarding execs for firing masses of people is totally indecent. He should fire himself first. MS can now go to hell and i'm not sure anyone will care.
Let's be clear about this. The company is -owned- by the shareholders. Not the employees. So if the shareholders decide to buy or sell their shares in response to a piece of news, that is their prerogative.
Yes, there are many desperately sad consequences to laying off this many people, but you can't blame 'the market'. This is the very same market that allows these exact same companies to raise vast amounts of cash through initial and subsequent share offerings for internal investment. And once these companies are owned by 'the market', of course they need to be beholden to their masters, just like any other company. You do what your boss tells you. If you don't like it, choose a new boss!
Now, if your response to that is 'But I -did- like it, I wanted to work there, and now they've fired me', then I completely sympathize, and yet at the same time I have to ask a couple of questions.
- If you -don't- agree with the strategy being offered by 'the management', why would you want to work there any more anyway? You have good skills, you have good ideas, you know you want to 'steal their lunch' - JFDI.
- If you -do- agree with their strategy, then you can see why you might be the victim here. And again, you have good skills, you have good ideas, you know you want to 'steal their lunch' - JFDI.
Sadly, long gone are the days when -anyone- has a job for life. Not even in extremely socialist (aka 'communist') societies is that true any more. And if you are willing to accept that premise, that a 'job for life' is not on offer, then you have to expect that at some point you -will- be asked to leave. Knowing that, all you can do is prepare for that day...
"- If you -don't- agree with the strategy being offered by 'the management', why would you want to work there any more anyway?"
..because like most people I've got bills to pay..
a company isn't just strategy, it is also culture, people, working environment, terms and conditions.
It's one of the oldest tricks in the book, sadly for all those who've just been "presented with new opportunities".
However the short term share price increase that the big share holders will cash in on will only mask the longer term decline that this is a sign of. The smart money always gets out at this point.
Yep. That is how we know that even Microsoft has devolved to just managing its share price.
Sort of reminds me of this obscure company about a decade ago who acquired its competitor in hopes of also garnering that competitor's customers. When said customers stayed away in droves, the company's lady CEO (who later ran for political office and is associated with the USA's Republican Party) would announce a series of layoffs whenever the share price started falling. Invariably the share price would go up a bit for a few weeks. Then it would start falling again, and the cycle would begin again.
At the time, I became convinced that every publicly traded company eventually devolves to just managing its share price.
The pattern appears to continue.
A layoff is the last resort to keep the quarterly reports look less embarrassing. Any dunce can get rid of workers: Carol Bartz did it at Yahoo.
But that's to be expected. Nobody gives a flip to Nokia phones anymore since the appointment of Trojan Horse Elop, only a few raving loonies still care about Lumia phones.
If Satya has any sense, he would immediately kill off Windows Phone and focus resources on the enterprise and cloud and those things. And to making a proper desktop OS: Windows 9. Microsoft's mobile ambitions are dead, the latest Kantar numbers do not lie.
Let's rewind here.
Circa 2000, Nokia was the undisputed phone God of creation. there were no smartphones. Some groovy WAP things and all, but no smartphones
Circa 2002 - Microsoft, largely with an entire market-making opportunity produce a smartphone. Laughter and applause as the world carries on with Symbian.
Circa 2007, iPhone. Applause but less laughter.
Circa after that, world apes i-phone, calls it Android and Windows Phone.
Circa 2012, world still laughing at Windows Phone. Microsoft buys company with biggest user base on the planet
>>>Circa 2013 - Microsoft gives world Nokia phones with most popular OS on the planet<<<
Circa 2014 - Microsoft pretends Android not important in volume market and rescinds in favour of OS with large shoes and spinning bow tie.
Circa 2018 - World appreciates the old ones are the best ones and continues laughing.
Am I missing something or is there a pattern of missing opportunities here?
Looks like all low end development is gone (Beijing and Oulu cuts)
All European sites outside Finland are gone (except Lund which was a recent acquisition).
San Diego cut back down to "just certify everyone else's R&D"
MS would have probably cut more in China except for the Chinese government.
So now its making showcases for WinPho and Microsoft's "digital offerings"...in which case why not shutdown the whole Nokia acquisition and outsource it to Foxconn? Because MS isn't going for market share or profit on the basis of these announcements...
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
