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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

#181

Post by apalmer »

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.

the Google-Youtube, FB-Instagram and FB-Whatsapp are clearly not in the same category of merger & aquisition as MS & Nokia.

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

#182

Post by marcosdumay »

makecheck wrote: post #121
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.

It's funny to see all those people on HN talking about "redundancy" and "letting people quit on their own", as if people were perfectly fungible - and in a software company!

Yep, I'm sure they'll save a lot in severance when their best people quit.

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

#183

Post by cookiecaper »

mikeryan wrote: post #144
cookiecaper wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a social indicator, not a definitive attribute. I've known several MBAs personally and only one was legitimately intelligent -- the rest were sales guys who thought their MBA entitled them to make big decisions with perilously little background or knowledge of much of anything related to the situation. I know an MBA right now who is pursuing a business wherein he offers wifi hotspots to small businesses. His lit…

I know a guy with an MBA who runs a successful interactive agency thats had 100% revenue growth year over year. His MBA has better trained him to handle the operations, accounting and marketing side of his business, since up to the point of starting his company he'd only worked as a software engineer. YMMV.

Indeed -- as I conceded in my original comment, some MBAs are smart and my experiences are anecdotes. Conflicting anecdotes certainly exist. However, the person I replied to stated that he/she did not understand why it was common to dislike MBAs, and I shared what I think is the primary reason.

Fully agree that YMMV, but generalizations are useful tools as long as we don't take them as absolutes.

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

#184

Post by 72deluxe »

headgasket wrote: post #160

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 think…

What's wrong with the NT kernel? How does its closed-source nature affect how useful it is? I note that the closed-source iOS kernel seems to also be quite effective, as does the Mach kernel for Mac OSX (despite the existence of and generally not very useful OpenDarwin availability). The history of NT is quite interesting, as is the NT article on Wikipedia.

And despite Mac OSX and iOS being BSD-based, my mum doesn't shout "I love my UNIX OS!" every time she uses her iPad - she doesn't care.

I don't think Microsoft's woes relate to their kernel. I doubt that you could argue that Linux's UNIX-style kernel is the single reason for its success in the server market; userland is what has made it massively useful. And although varied forms of Linux (read Android) have widespread use, the avalanche of Linux on the desktop hasn't happened (and likely won't!). Businesses still use PCs for their work, despite the occasional Mac you see. You don't see people using mobile devices for work (other than replying to emails whilst on the move), despite Satya's "mobile-first" new motto.

I would also argue that compilers are not going out of fashion or use and there is no value in them; do you REALLY believe that? How do you run any software on your device without a compiler to build the software in the first place? Given the exciting developments in compiled languages (C++11, C++14) recently (and half compiled ones like C#) I would argue that they are more relevant than ever, despite their obvious unpopularity with web developers who irritatingly eternally proclaim how irrelevant they are, and how out of date the languages they don't know are.

What makes MS' compilers bad, by the way?

I just thought I'd reply as your comment seemed a little ill-thought-out? It isn't meant nastily BTW, more of a conversation!

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

#185

Post by eitally »

silverbax88 wrote: post #85
kabdib wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

A friend of mine who has been CFO of a couple of Fortune 500 companies once told me that layoffs always drive a stock price up, and that it's also one of the single biggest proofs that Wall Street analysts have no idea how to run a real business. He explained that any company who could shed a massive amount of its workforce within a year, or all at once, is a red flag for massive internal problems. At the time we had…

imho, the biggest cause of this kind of thing is lack of sufficient strategic direction, and delegation with accountability to middle management of initiatives that are in line with that direction. When middle/lower managers aren't in lockstep with the CEO's/Board's strategy, confusion, misdirection and unnecessary politics ensue, and the lowest possible level workers suffer most.

Counter Nadella's communications over the last few weeks with what Larry Page said/wrote when he took over from Eric Schmidt. Even though Google pursues hundreds of interesting initiatives of varying revenue importance, it appears they have a coherent strategy (internally, at least) and have been making appropriate decisions to further it, even when those decisions are sometimes indecipherable to external viewers.

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

#186

Post by logicallee »

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.

I don't know if you guys read the email in question - http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2014/jul14/07-17an...

it seems fine to me?

c.f.

Subject: good news and bad news

Hey team, got some good news and bad news. The bad news is not everyone can be part of some of the current transitions, you're more than welcome to re-apply to new positions that will be evolving in the future, for those of you who are still relevant. The good news is that for those of you who are staying - Microsoft is now a mobile-first company! We're making the productivity equivalent of Angry Birds. Also, we're keeping xbox, you guys are cool.

Peace yo.

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

#187

Post by 72deluxe »

dschiptsov wrote: post #62

So, finally, reality reasserted itself, and despite millions spent for brainwashing, Windows is already belongs to the past, the very same way Nokia phones are..)

How many people do you know using Windows?

How many of your work colleagues use Windows at work?

Does it really "belong to the past"?

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

#188

Post by headgasket »

MrDosu wrote: post #167
headgasket wrote: post #160

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 think…

Implying the WINNT kernel doesn't have the best device driver support in the world by a huge margin...

Thanks for pointing this out! But would you think think that in this post pc era, devices per se that require drivers and dont have their own os that can communicate via standards are kind of going the way of the dodo?

As an aside, I'm wondering why every time I try to post something on YC's news forum I seem get downvoted. Is it groupthink that I just cant join in on? Is this community averse to opinions or ideas that run against the current grain?

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

#189

Post by 72deluxe »

hyperliner wrote: post #162

In startups, you can be gone at any time. In large company, you can be gone at any time. So, the lesson here is: prepare to be gone, and be gone before you are gone.

Very wise advice! Keep projects bubbling on the side in case this eventuality hits! And live within your means.
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