Microsoft to Lay Off Thousands of Employees?

[Michael Dudikoff]

Bad news if true

"It seems not even Microsoft is impervious to the effects of this increasingly painful recession. According to reports, the Redmond-based company is preparing to lay off about 17 per cent of its entire workforce in the coming months. Despite its portfolio diversity — including operating systems, antivirus software, and video game consoles — Microsoft is clearly feeling the pressure applied by a tightening global economy. In fact, there seems to be a sense of emergency to the massive cuts (about 15,000 workers out of 90,000), which rumors suggest should be made official by January 15."

- http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/01/05/157243

[Michael Dudikoff]

Arstechnica is reporting it too

Currently Microsoft employs about 90,000 people across the world and from what we're hearing, some 15,000 of those are expected to be giving marching orders come January 15th. That's almost 17 percent of Microsoft's total work force, not exactly a small number. So far, we haven't managed to confirm what departments or regions will be hit the worst, but we're hearing that MSN might be carrying the brunt of the layoffs. We're also hearing rumors about the possibility of somewhat larger staff cuts at Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).

- http://arstechnica.com/journals/microsoft.ars/2009/01/01/rumor-microsoft-to-lay-off-17-of-staff-on-january-15-2009

[Cobra Commander]

Youch. Things like that scare me. I wonder what most of those people will do.