What surprises me is that they even have 18,000 employees. That is, of course 18,000 people work at Microsoft. But I didn't realize that so many of them still work for Microsoft.

[edited by: bill at 9:56 pm (utc) on Jul 17, 2014]
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What I have seen here on the French press
Is Good riddance
On Le Monde (French Press) - see below.
Windows is DEAD ..
These guys have been selling their garbage for years
closed system. Go away MS !


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Windows c'est bientôt mort, et on ne va pas le pleurer. Unix existe depuis plus de 40 ans, bien avant windows à qui il survivra sans l'ombre d'un doute. Unix du XXIe siècle est un système ouvert (souvent libre) et portable basé sur le monde de la recherche contrairement à windows dont le code est fermé et limité à quelques architectures et qui est surtout conçu pour être une machine à fric. Que ce soit AIX, Solaris, HP-UX, tous les Linux, tous les BSD, MacOS, Android, Tizen, (...), même combat !
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[marketwatch.com...]

Looks like MSFT is getting lean and mean and feeling the pinch. 18,000 jobs gone in the next year.

Might be long overdue but still sounds like a staggering cut!

[edited by: bill at 9:57 pm (utc) on Jul 17, 2014]
[edit reason] tidy up [/edit]

Here's the news from Microsoft on this.

Microsoft Corp. today announced a restructuring plan to simplify its organization and align the recently acquired Nokia Devices and Services business with the company’s overall strategy.

These steps will result in the elimination of up to 18,000 positions over the next year. Of the total, about 12,500 professional and factory positions will be eliminated through synergies and strategic alignment of the Nokia Devices and Services business acquired by Microsoft on April 25.

The actions associated with the plan are expected to be substantially complete by Dec. 31, 2014, and fully completed by June 30, 2015. Microsoft Restructuring [microsoft.com]

>staggering

That is a lot of jobs. Hopefully they aren't too concentrated geographically

Not sure about the geography, but the article I linked to initially said, "Some 12,500 of the cuts are coming from the Nokia Devices and Services unit"

In my opinion this was normal and to be expected after acquiring Nokia, many jobs instantly became redundant. Microsoft also needed to adjust for underestimating the market shift caused by Apple's iphone, which is something many companies have done and continue to grapple with. The internet went mobile on the back of that device.

Microsoft was talking about their "core" a few weeks ago which was, in hindsight, a signal that they were looking inwards. You look forward for growth opportunities and you look inward for cost cutting opportunities. Microsoft was looking inwards fairly intently and now we know why.

I almost forgot they bought Nokia. Isn't that like Mayweather Penny Farthings Ltd taking over Crawley's Finest Plough Horses Co. in around 1900?

"You're so far behind the curve, you can't see the curve any more. The curve is a dot to you!"

I was in a company of 100+ that barely avoided a MS acquisition once. We knew they'd fire everyone except a handful of the lead engineers so we told them to take a hike. Our competitors sold to MS and they got slaughtered, cut to the bone, everyone gone but a couple of engineers.

Of course I'd probably have gotten MS stock back when that was worth something so maybe it was a bad deal, but for all the workers total, it was a good deal.

Typical example of how some companies look out for the needs of the many over the needs of the few vs. the greedy company execs that go for the biggest golden parachute they can possibly get while the rest of the company gets shipped off to the soup lines.