
It took 18,000 employees to remove a start menu
Can we have it back now please?
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has brought down his axe again, sending off the next batch of the 18,000 employees he has promised will lose their jobs by the end of the year. The Redmond supremo issued about 2,100 pink slips on Thursday, the Seattle Times reports, bringing the total number of layoffs to approximately 15,100 and …
"Poor taste, that's a lot of families going to have a harder Christmas this year."
My heart goes out to anyone who receives a Windows 8 device this Christmas, and finds it hard going due to the lack of a start menu.
Even poorer taste, I know.
But irresistible, nonetheless.
"Poor taste, that's a lot of families going to have a harder Christmas this year."
Luckily that won't be an issue for most Microsoft employees who are largely cheap rate imported heathens from India, etc. so don't believe in Christmas....
Some sort of ISIS (or whatever their name is today) reference to grab headline attention on Google News?
<sigh> Yes, there's the name for recruiters -- headhunters. Yes.. there's terminating, axing, etc. for firing, but it's a job, not a head. With all the ISIS crap floating about, I would have thought El Reg wouldn't jump into the Murdoch style headline business.
> considering some journalists really ARE being decapitated
Yeah, but on the other hand, civilians are being hellfired and droned to death, so I suppose we can no longer talk about "going to hell" and "the manager's continuous, mindless droning?"
Sir,
Your suggestion that the headline was optimized for search engines so as to nestle the story within coverage of a bloodstained medieval terror campaign is, to use a technical term within the industry, complete cobblers.
Respectfully yours,
C.
Ballmer went on an acquisition spree, since Microsoft can't innovate. Microsoft bought Nokia, allegedly for its cell phone expertise. Now they lay off practically the entirety of Nokia, plus good chunks of their own US operations. Huawei dumped Microsoft phones due to poor sales.
Spend lots of money buying stuff, lay off lots of people, ???, profit.
Well, the profit is, of course, from Windows OS, Office, cell phone patents, and never from cell phones themselves.
Microsoft bought Nokia, allegedly for its cell phone expertise
No. Nokia put all it's eggs in one basket (WP), and failed. Since Nokia is (for all intents and purposes) the only Windows phone manufacturer (and their only chance of being saved was Android) MS simply had to snatch Nokia's mobile division.
If you think WP's market-share is small now, imagine what it would have been like it Nokia went under?
Xbox losses are covered by cellphone patents (xbox loses 2bn a year, patents earn that).
Most of the patents turned out to be crap, the few that weren't expire very soon.
Time to drop the xbox moneypit and windows phone disaster. Shareholders are shouting the same. The madness cant carry on.
"xbox loses 2bn a year, patents earn that"
Xbox One might currently be in negative territory versus R&D and launch costs, but the Xbox 360 become profitable long ago:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/126085/Microsofts_Xbox_360_Division_Sees_132_Billion_Profit_For_Fiscal_Year_2011.php
Versus 50 million active Xbox Live subscriptions, 6 million Xbox Ones sold already and a much higher attach rate than the PS4, it's clear that the Xbox One is going to be another cash cow too...
That's cherrypicked accounting, it's main aim to to brainwash idiots keen to believe. You can keep your gaming website "news". Here is some businesses news.
http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-earns-2-billion-per-year-from-android-patent-royalties-2013-11
or if you don't like to read business websites:
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2013-11-07-huge-xbox-losses-hidden-by-patent-royalties-says-analyst
Time to drop the xbox moneypit and windows phone disaster
For all the money we're throwing at them for Windows/Office, I wish they'd spend it on making them actually usable - but I guess they don't care about that because they know we have to use them, no matter how shite they are.
"Spend lots of money buying stuff, lay off lots of people, ???, profit."
No. Spend lots of money, lay off the peasants, write off losses.
Like MS did with Aquantive, which involved MS' bungling executives writing off over $6bn in a failed attempt to become Google2 (and the axe for 2,600 Aquantive employees). The Nokia gamble is a destined-for-failure attempt to be Apple2. They spent $1.2bn on the Yammer social networking platform a couple of years back in an attempt to be Facebook2 - that "investment" must be due for writedown and mass sackings by now. $8bn on Skype to become who knows what, and that looks to be a profitless investment, with the commoditisation of VOIP clients and the change of VOIP users from voice to IM.
Who's on the up, and might Microsoft hope to be next year? If we can suss that then we just go long on the likely target, and sell out as soon as the bid is made. They've just blown the fat end of $3bn on Minecraft, which is staggering - buying the IP of one crap game without even the drive of the creator.
"Sorry guys, but due to current market conditions, we can no longer afford to keep you on our staff. We value you as employees, and have tried everything in our power to retain your positions, but the money just isn't there. As a parting gift, feel free to pick up a free copy of Minecraft as you exit the front door."
You guys are too much with your tired anti Microsoft venom. Microsoft is probably going to be around long after most of you are pushing walkers in the rest home.
In case you guys don't read anything but your own rantings....take a gander at just about any financial pages and read a little about how well Satya Nadella's new direction is being received.
MS got 32,000 new employees in the Nokia acquisition. Did anyone really expect them all to remain? Only 4700 of those employees were in Finland. The rest were involved in manufacturing.
MS will continue to improve on all facets and find a new mojo. Windows 9 will convince Win 7 and Win 8 people to upgrade, XP will finally die and then Windows 10 will be huge. You read it here first folks.
We have seen it before with the likes of DEC/Compaq/HP and a few dozen other companies.
The perennial CEO problem. When their flagship product isn't selling very well the have to do something to appease the likes of Wall St. so they cut headcount. At leasy they can be seen to be doing something.
The problem for Microsoft (and others) is how they can release a product that will bring back the days of Windows-95 where people queued for the boxed containing the release.
Sataya must be looking at the iPhone 6 launch and wishing how he could shift 6 million Surface 3's in a week. That would take the pressue on headcount off his shoulders.
Sadly his response will be to go and buy a few more companies that will only pad out their headcount meaning that they will have to go through it all again in a few months times.