Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by pfortuny » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:37 PM UTC

meowface wrote: post #27

forgotAgain wrote: post #9

Too many words. He needs to drop the self absorbed thought leader babble and communicate in a straight forward manner.

>I synthesized our strategic direction >focusing our innovation investments >our work toward synergies and strategic alignment >Nokia Devices and Services integration synergies and strategic alignment >simplify the way we work to drive greater accountability, become more agile and move faster >Thank you for your support as we start to take steps forward in evolving our organization and culture You can't make this shi…

Well, it has probably been overseen in case of Copyright infringement. That is why "synergies and strategic alignment" is repeated.

Unbelievable how "We have decided our business requires 18000 less employees than there are now" can be strategically and synergetically rephrased and aligned.

Culture, ah, culture.

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

#152

Post by hyperliner » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:40 PM UTC

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…

I think the best way to say the above is not that "Microsoft lays off half of Nokia group."

It should instead be "Microsoft saves half of Nokia's employees jobs."

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

#153

Post by sirkneeland » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:41 PM UTC

Attention Nokia (MS) workers: Nokia (Nokia) is hiring.

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

#154

Post by sirkneeland » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

kentlyons wrote: post #140

sz4kerto wrote: post #64

Stephen Elop's email on the same topic, but focused on ex-Nokians: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/jul14/07-17an... tl,dr;: - Nokia X is dead - other Devices departments are not affected/the effect is limited

It isn't just that Nokia X is dead. This says they're killing of all of what use to be "Smart devices" - which is/was the feature phone division. So that includes the Asha series, etc.

Mobile Phones was the feature phone division. Smart Devices was the smartphone division.

All an academic point since now they're just going to be "the phones division"

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

#155

Post by hyperliner » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:42 PM UTC

smackfu wrote: post #101

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…

Depends on the viewpoint: When you acquire a company, are the employees assets or liabilities?

Who? The engineers? Clearly many of them would be liabilities as their product lost. Some visionaries are needed, some business people, some engineering leaders, some bright engineers, etc.

Unfortunately, some acquisitions are for talent, others for revenue, others for customers, others for technology, or a mix, and the talent here may be a mix bag.

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

#156

Post by sirkneeland » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:43 PM UTC

sz4kerto wrote: post #64

Stephen Elop's email on the same topic, but focused on ex-Nokians: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/jul14/07-17an... tl,dr;: - Nokia X is dead - other Devices departments are not affected/the effect is limited

And Elop burns another platform. I've lost count at this point.

This is the THIRD round of major layoffs Nokia has gone through since 2011. I feel bad for my former colleagues.

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

#157

Post by samuel » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:43 PM UTC

ggreer wrote: post #128

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Subject: Important Company-wide Announcement Dear Employees, For our business to continue running, we must reduce the number of staff. This is an unfortunate but also inevitable reality. [insert details of layoff here] [insert honest platitudes] Senior management wishes all of you the best of luck, and has every confidence that you will be even more successful at your next job.

The only bit I would disagree with is, "For our business to continue running..." Last year, Microsoft made over $20 billion profit on almost $80 billion in revenue. The truth is that Microsoft has accumulated many useless employees over the years, and they could be even more profitable by laying off those people.

"In order to maximize shareholder value in the long term..." I would hate to be fired, no matter the phrasing, but kudos to a CEO brave enough to say things just how they are.

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

#158

Post by mynegation » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:44 PM UTC

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…

The situation is almost reverse in smaller scale companies. It is not unusual for a mid-sized company to acquire another mid-sized or small company, keep the factory workers, engineering, R&D and lay off all mid and senior management (though with pretty good severance usually) to install their own people.

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

#159

Post by hyperliner » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:45 PM UTC

roc wrote: post #116

frou_dh wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Political tap-dancing has been parodied for generations and that still happens. Heck, Cheney all but quoted Reagan's "I don't recall"-defense as a 20th anniversary tribute and that had been lampooned specifically .

Or, for balance, Obama saying "I am acting alone on the border" and then at the border "Congress does not do its job."

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

#160

Post by headgasket » Thu, Jul 17, 2014, 2:46 PM UTC

Is it me or this guy is trying hard the SteveJobs look in that picture?

Simple solution to all of microsoft's woes: Drop the WINNT kernel and replace it by a unix based variant. Is there any value in keeping the kernel closed source ? Hasn't that fight been lost a long time ago?

Windows is going byzantine fast; there's no value in compilers and in os kernels anymore, the open source ones are better but MS still thinks that they have these as a competing advantage while they are a R&D money pit.