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Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

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Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#91

Post by Tloewald »

kabdib wrote: post #17
67726e wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm assuming that an announcement like this could effect stock prices. I have no knowledge of stock trading at all, but I would assume they would announce something like this if they expected it to have a positive effect.

Stock is up over 45 now . . . Getting rid of dead wood is a great idea. Tons of middle management there, just sitting for years and causing obstructive damage.

Layoffs almost always improve stock price (literally the first thing "strategy" consultants do when brought in to help "fix" a company is look at an org chart and start hacking bits off). Whether layoffs are actually a good move in the long run doesn't become apparent until much later. (Did you destroy your ability to keep doing business to get a nice bottom line in the short term? Corporate raiders specialize in buying companies with borrowed money, firing a bunch of people, pumping the bottom line, and then selling them before the fact that they're now crippled becomes apparent.)

I had a guy under me laid off, and I resigned on the spot -- because his being laid off meant the company was giving up on a core capability that was the main reason I wanted to be at the company. A friend of mine was working at a large software company that laid off "dead wood" (according to management) including key engineers, which literally led to all the other experienced engineers on his team leaving.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#92

Post by CSMastermind »

worldpeace wrote: post #32
Infinitesimus wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Layoffs aren't always about profit though. In this case, it is more about streamlining and making MS more agile

Does anybody really believe that's going to be the result of this? This is just laying off the people they acquired from that $7.2 billion Nokia acquisition.

The Nokia layoffs are only the first half. One of the last things Steve Ballmer did was restructure the company.

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2013/jul13/07-11on...

This created a lot of redundant people and groups.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#93

Post by netcan »

k2enemy wrote: post #3

And now, every day for a year, everyone gets to wake up and wonder if this is the day that they will get laid off. Why can't they wait and make the announcement once they know who they will eliminate and do it in one swift action? Why put people in limbo for a year?

My guess would be that laying off this many is a big hairy job. A lot of people need to be involved. They would all need to know about it.

Keeping it secret is a lost cause. There would be rumors and theories and half truths flying around.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#94

Post by pierreio »

So MS Bought Nokia and ~30k employees for ~$7.2 billion last April.

3 months later, MS may now be firing ~half of the Nokia group. The executives who drove that catastrophic deal stay.

What a testament to how disastrous big M&A really is. Is there any large acquisition that succeeded in the last 10 years? I'd feel sorry if I was a Nokia guy there, they pulled out the best non-Apple phone hardware in the last years.

Probably also a good reminder for Blackberry - dont sell yourself and die trying, it actually can't get worse.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#95

Post by untog »

eddieroger wrote: post #65
untog wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can HN lay off the MBA hate? It's getting really old. It's abundantly clear that no-one even knows what an MBA is.

The culture of a place like Hacker News is diametrically opposed to the type of people who would seek out and get an MBA. We're all supposed to be start-up focused entrepreneurs who are waiting for our exit by a corporation, only to also leave and start over. It's a common perception (even if it's wrong) that one of the tenants of an MBA is a communication style like the one used in Nadella's letter.

You basically just said "this perception might be wrong but it's one we criticise anyway", which... yeah.

In any case, MBAs can help start-up focused entrepreneurs. They can be start-up focused entrepreneurs. Your perception that it can't be so is exactly what I'm talking about.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#96

Post by [deleted] »

pxlpshr wrote: post #75
frou_dh wrote: post #5

Subject: Starting to Evolve Our Organization and Culture Body: Last week in my email to you I synthesized our strategic direction ... Christ.

Instead of writing "Christ", you should consider posting an email as if you were the one newly responsible for a $364B company and a reduction in 18,000 jobs. I'd be curious to see other people's management style from their armchair.

[deleted]

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#97

Post by frou_dh »

pxlpshr wrote: post #75
frou_dh wrote: post #5

Subject: Starting to Evolve Our Organization and Culture Body: Last week in my email to you I synthesized our strategic direction ... Christ.

Instead of writing "Christ", you should consider posting an email as if you were the one newly responsible for a $364B company and a reduction in 18,000 jobs. I'd be curious to see other people's management style from their armchair.

I would spontaneously combust if I were responsible for a $364B company on a good day, never mind deciding how layoffs should be done. It's just surprising that parody-level corporate-speak still gets used despite having being derided for years in mainstream press and conversation.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#98

Post by untog »

pierreio wrote: post #94

So MS Bought Nokia and ~30k employees for ~$7.2 billion last April. 3 months later, MS may now be firing ~half of the Nokia group. The executives who drove that catastrophic deal stay. What a testament to how disastrous big M&A really is. Is there any large acquisition that succeeded in the last 10 years? I'd feel sorry if I was a Nokia guy there, they pulled out the best non-Apple phone hardware in the last years. P…

Is there any large acquisition that succeeded in the last 10 years?

You might have the wrong criteria for acquisition success. I'm sure both Nokia and MS knew these layoffs would come before they agreed to the purchase.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#99

Post by bigdubs »

sgibat wrote: post #90

Is this going to bloat the Software Engineer market? Do we know what percentage are developers?

From reading the email, I looks like the majority (~12k) of the cuts are in the Nokia division, not sure how many of those are developers but I'd imagine not the majority.

Re: Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

#100

Post by anjc »

chton wrote: post #4
sz4kerto wrote: post #2

MSFT pre-market at $45 at the moment -- higher than anytime in the last decade. There are big expectations towards Nadella -- we need to see groundbreaking strategy changes to justify this. Exciting times.

I'm not sure how this fits into a big strategy change. It mostly seems like really eliminating redundancy, that's why most of the firings are in the Nokia department. They've recently acquired that, so there are bound to be lots of people there that do jobs that were already filled at Microsoft. That would be more than enough to justify it, at least to stockholders.

He's talking about cultural alignment in the mail, and there's no reason to assume that that's not the reasoning behind the Nokia layoffs. Acquisitions and mergers are very difficult to get right, particularly in terms of culture. If there's a cultural gap between the two companies, then the layoffs for the acquirer probably make sense.
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