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Microsoft Looks to Cut Up to 18,000 Jobs

recode.net

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

#121

Post by makecheck »

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?

Companies announcing "X" layoffs typically don't need to lay off "X" people, they actually need to lay off "X + N" people; they are counting on attrition following such an announcement to quietly make up the difference. That makes the press (slightly) better, and the people who quit because they sense a sinking ship, etc. won't cost the company in severance packages either.

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

#122

Post by _pmf_ »

untog wrote: post #50
bshimmin wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's just typical big-company-CEO babble, which I think they must teach you when you do an MBA. (And yes, Satya Nadella has an MBA.)

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.

> Can HN lay off the MBA hate? It's getting really old.

As soon as the majority of MBAs start displaying a moderate amount of domain specific knowledge that makes them look less like complete fools to the petty peasants that work for them, I'm sure the hate will fade.

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

#124

Post by outside1234 »

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…

It can get worse. MS could be firing the whole team and not just 50%. This is the reality that Blackberry faces.

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

#125

Post by personZ »

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.

We don't even know who was laid off, so the market isn't judging based upon it being a productive reduction of force -- they're reacting because in the short term, layoffs almost always improve profits, especially for an organization like Microsoft that is coasting on prior wins. It may sacrifice the future, but few of those holders have any commitment to the future.

In every post about this story, right near the top have been dreamy posts about "dead weight" and "middle management" being cut, as if all of Microsoft's prior executive bungles are suddenly being resolved (with most of the same executives, as an aside). Yet the bulk of the layoffs come from Nokia (man, Finland is going to be pissed), people whose only mistake was following a leader who was widely considered a trojan horse.

Elop keeps his job. Those people lose theirs.

And how ridiculous prejudicial for all of these people whose only mistake was being in a company that main horrendous strategy decisions time and time again -- having people title you "dead wood".

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

#126

Post by bpyne »

untog wrote: post #98
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.

Success is highly subjective. Perhaps you mean different?

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

#127

Post by madengr »

sz4kerto wrote: post #104
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? Yes, many. Think of the Lenovo-IBM deal -- massive success. The Facebook-Whatsapp deal is 2.5x bigger than this acquisition, we'll see how that works out (financially). Google-Youtube is a big one that can be considered as a big success as well. Ebay-Paypal. FB-Instagram.

Bigger in terms of inflated stock prices, but not by head count. Lenovo has taken the Thinkpad line down the toilet, not that IBM wouldn't have.

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

#128

Post by ggreer »

NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #89
pxlpshr wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

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

#129

Post by dragonwriter »

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?

Lots. Of course, success is relative to for whom -- many of them work out well for shareholders of the acquired firm, many work out okay for shareholders of the acquiring firm, and the executives on both sides usually do well.

Of course, part of how it works out for those groups is that it, by design, doesn't work out well for the "human resources" that are production inputs.

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

#130

Post by bergie »

DelwinAmber wrote: post #120
pierreio wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did MS? Including the cost of the lay off ($1.6b says Recode), Nokia price was actually $8.8b. What was their business case that was so easily scrapped just months into the purchase? It may be successful on a tax/accounting perspective since the purchase was made in € with cash that couldn't be brought to the US. Yet this does look like a gigantic waste of assets. Warren Buffett says that a successful business is all…

It can be argued that their patent portfolio was worth about that much.

Except that Microsoft didn't get the Nokia patents, merely a license to use them.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/03/us-nokia-microsoft...

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