New York/London CNN  — 

Microsoft plans to lay off 10,000 employees as part of broader cost-cutting measures, the company said in a securities filing on Wednesday, making it the latest tech company to reduce staff because of growing economic uncertainty.

Speaking before the layoff announcement at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, on Wednesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the company was not immune to a weaker global economy.

“No one can defy gravity and gravity here is inflation-adjusted economic growth,” he told WEF founder Klaus Schwab in a livestreamed discussion.

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/01/18/tech/microsoft-layoffs/index.html

Doesn't MS make billions in profit? Yet the first thing they do is sack the people that made that profit possible.

 

6 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Doesn't MS make billions in profit? Yet the first thing they do is sack the people that made that profit possible.

 

During the pandemic, there was a huge boom in the use of technology, requiring the hiring of a lot of employees by a lot of companies.  People were shopping online as stores were closed.  People were working from home and meetings were being held on platforms such as zoom.  Entire school systems were conducting classes online.  Most of my Dr.'s appointments were on FaceTime.  

Do you really think that a lot of the people hired, or the tech companies thought that was going to be a permanent gig?   

Hate to see anyone out of work better learn some new skills!

It seems they have been pretty good at finding new jobs:

 

the vast majority of laid-off tech workers—about 79%—find work within three months of searching, according to a ZipRecruiter survey of 2,550 U.S. residents who started a new job between April and October. And 37% of laid-off tech workers got a new job in less than one month.Dec 27, 2022

 

https://fortune.com/2022/12/27/laid-off-tech-workers-finding-new-jobs/

2 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

Doesn't MS make billions in profit? Yet the first thing they do is sack the people that made that profit possible.

 

The first thing?

How do you know that? Maybe they did a lot of things before they fired people.

 

And it makes sense for any company to have the number of employees which they need. If they need more people, then they hire more people. And if they need fewer people, what should they do? Just keep everybody on the payroll?

And if they would keep everybody on the payroll then what would happen? At some stage they wouldn't make money anymore and then they would go bankrupt and then nobody would work there anymore. Is that what you want? 

Just going to be one of the first of many firms laying huge numbers off this year. World - especially America - is about to get hit real hard

4 hours ago, Credo said:

During the pandemic, there was a huge boom in the use of technology, requiring the hiring of a lot of employees by a lot of companies.  People were shopping online as stores were closed.  People were working from home and meetings were being held on platforms such as zoom.  Entire school systems were conducting classes online.  Most of my Dr.'s appointments were on FaceTime.  

Do you really think that a lot of the people hired, or the tech companies thought that was going to be a permanent gig?   

Not being a digital engineer I have no idea. What sort of contract did they have?

4 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Just going to be one of the first of many firms laying huge numbers off this year. World - especially America - is about to get hit real hard

IMO this is nothing. Once AI/ robotics comes on stream there are going to be a lot more than that out of jobs.

Another cost of stupid lockdown policies destroying the global economy.

 

I wonder if Gates will get as much stick for this as Musk did for laying off Twitter employees? Somehow I doubt it, he's on the correct side of the fence.

5% of their workforce, a real shame for them but as linked to earlier, the majority have already found new employment. Nothing as drastic as the 50 - 70% shed by twitter.

7 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Another cost of stupid lockdown policies destroying the global economy.

 

I wonder if Gates will get as much stick for this as Musk did for laying off Twitter employees? Somehow I doubt it, he's on the correct side of the fence.

Do you understand that Bill Gates is no longer running Microsoft?

Also, what percentage of Microsoft employees were laid off vs the percentage of Twitter employees were laid off?

And did Microsoft insult the performance of those laid-off employees? How does that compare to Musk's gratuitous nastiness when Twitter employees were laid off?

5 minutes ago, placeholder said:

Do you understand that Bill Gates is no longer running Microsoft?

Also, what percentage of Microsoft employees were laid off vs the percentage of Twitter employees were laid off?

And did Microsoft insult the performance of those laid-off employees? How does that compare to Musk's gratuitous nastiness when Twitter employees were laid off?

Gates is the owner.

 

Were the Microsoft employees performing way under par? Were the Microsoft employees removing customers based on their political affiliation? Were the Microsoft employees burying important information prior to an election? I'd argue the Twitter employees were far more deserving of being laid off.

9 minutes ago, JonnyF said:

Gates is the owner.

 

Were the Microsoft employees performing way under par? Were the Microsoft employees removing customers based on their political affiliation? Were the Microsoft employees burying important information prior to an election? I'd argue the Twitter employees were far more deserving of being laid off.

False, Gates is not the owner. He's a shareholder. And not even the biggest one.  He owns 1.38% of Microsoft shares.

The top five shareholders of Microsoft are brokerage firms. They hold the stock in many of the investment vehicles they offer or as custodians for the customers that use their proprietary trading platforms.

The largest individual stockholder of the company is Bill Gates, who owns 1.38% of the total common shares in circulation.

 

https://capital.com/microsoft-shareholder-who-owns-most-msft-stock#:~:text=They hold the stock in,total common shares in circulation.

14 hours ago, JonnyF said:

Gates is the owner.

 

Were the Microsoft employees performing way under par? Were the Microsoft employees removing customers based on their political affiliation? Were the Microsoft employees burying important information prior to an election? I'd argue the Twitter employees were far more deserving of being laid off.

"Were the Microsoft employees performing way under par?"

 

The article doesn't say, but probably not.  They were probably laid off because they were the most recent hires.  That's a harsh fact of life when working for big businesses in the US.

 

"Were the Microsoft employees removing customers based on their political affiliation?"  Were the Microsoft employees burying important information prior to an election?"

 

No, these decisions were made at a much higher level.

 

Will Twitter survive after firing half its workforce?  It will probably limp along for a while, but long term survival, and what kind of company will survive, is very uncertain.

 

Will Microsoft survive after laying off less than 5% of its workforce?  Yes.

 

Will Musk lose money and does he regret his foolish offer to buy Twitter, which he was forced to honor?  It's safe to assume the answer is yes to both.

 

Does the market driven down-sizing of Microsoft compare to the reckless mismanagement of Twitter?  Not at all.