Microsoft announces 10,000 layoffs, 5% of its workforce:
Microsoft is "focusing on our short- and long-term opportunity", which is to say it's laying off 10,000 people.
First, we will align our cost structure with our revenue and where we see customer demand. Today, we are making changes that will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3. This represents less than 5 percent of our total employee base, with some notifications happening today. It's important to note that while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas. We know this is a challenging time for each person impacted. The senior leadership team and I are committed that as we go through this process, we will do so in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible.
Second, we will continue to invest in strategic areas for our future, meaning we are allocating both our capital and talent to areas of secular growth and long-term competitiveness for the company, while divesting in other areas. These are the kinds of hard choices we have made throughout our 47-year history to remain a consequential company in this industry that is unforgiving to anyone who doesn't adapt to platform shifts. As such, we are taking a $1.2 billion charge in Q2 related to severance costs, changes to our hardware portfolio, and the cost of lease consolidation as we create higher density across our workspaces.
And third, we will treat our people with dignity and respect, and act transparently. These decisions are difficult, but necessary. They are especially difficult because they impact people and people's lives – our colleagues and friends. We are committed to ensuring all those whose roles are eliminated have our full support during these transitions. U.S.-benefit-eligible employees will receive a variety of benefits, including above-market severance pay, continuing healthcare coverage for six months, continued vesting of stock awards for six months, career transition services, and 60 days' notice prior to termination, regardless of whether such notice is legally required. Benefits for employees outside the U.S. will align with the employment laws in each country.
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On Monday, AI tech darling OpenAI announced that it received a "multi-year, multi-billion dollar investment" from Microsoft, following previous investments in 2019 and 2021. While the two companies have not officially announced a dollar amount on the deal, the news follows rumors of a $10 billion investment that emerged two weeks ago.
[...] "The past three years of our partnership have been great," said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, in a Microsoft news release. "Microsoft shares our values and we are excited to continue our independent research and work toward creating advanced AI that benefits everyone."
In particular, the two companies say they will work on supercomputing at scale to accelerate OpenAI's research, integrating OpenAI's technology into more Microsoft products and "digital experiences" and keeping Microsoft as OpenAI's exclusive cloud provider with Azure. "OpenAI has used this infrastructure to train its breakthrough models, which are now deployed in Azure to power category-defining AI products like GitHub Copilot, DALL·E 2, and ChatGPT," wrote Microsoft.
Related:
Microsoft Announces 10,000 Layoffs, 5% of its Workforce
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday January 19, @05:44AM (1 child)
Only 10% just them getting started. The same sources [gemini] which called these layoffs a few weeks ago also expect several more large rounds of layoffs there, possibly up to a third of those dirt bags.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 19, @04:15PM
My next door neighbor made a hefty nest egg working for Microsoft for 20 years, he was laid off - position eliminated - about 5 years ago. What valuable skills did he learn in 20 years of working for Microsoft, making that fat paycheck? Apparently, his skills best transferred to real estate sales - he's doing quite well at that now.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 5, Funny) by Fnord666 on Thursday January 19, @05:45AM (1 child)
(Score: 5, Touché) by canopic jug on Thursday January 19, @07:39AM
So is this what they meant by unlimited vacation?
Why, yes, it is what Gates' Nadella means by unlimited time off [theverge.com]. It's just another way to hide their furloughs and to try to spin them as not in violation of the few enforced labor laws remaining in the US.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Thursday January 19, @11:46AM (5 children)
A long time ago, I was a young contractor posted at IBM, when they had the reputation of never having laid anyone off. It seemed pretty cynically obvious that they maintained that reputation by making contractors take the falls. Which is what happened to us.
Eventually, IBM broke. Guess they ran out of contractors to dismiss.
Employment is strange. Employers do much to make employment practically enslavement. One of the weirder things I have found all too prevalent is the pushy, threatening encouragement for the employees to put themselves in a financial bind. Go buy that new car! Show your commitment! I also read that this desire to have an iron hold over the employees is perhaps the #1 reason why healthcare in the US is still too largely provided through employer health insurance plans. We know of the now longstanding manipulation of the H1B program. Among the more recent fads in management has been the non-compete "agreement". No employee wants that. Lot of management really believes the slave driving approach achieves maximum productivity.
Tech workers especially have been bamboozled and befuddled into believing they're a superior class of worker-- one so superior that unionizing does not make sense. And maybe, tech workers are smarter than the average bears, tending to avoid financial binds more. I suspect that's all a factor in why tech has some of the worst age discrimination of any industry. Tech workers lose some of their financial naivety at an earlier age.
(Score: 2) by canopic jug on Thursday January 19, @12:59PM
Valid point. It's not just non-compete clauses but also non-disparagement clauses. In general tricking tech workers into ignoring unions and unionization has been integral in their exploitation over the recent decades.
There is one caveat: don't mistake microsofters for tech workers. They may block tech and they may absorb tech budgets but they otherwise have little to nothing to do with technology and care closer to a PAC or a cult with uses shoddy SDKs to pretend to deploy services instead of a simple electronic circuit to pretend to find supernatural parasites.
Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19, @03:36PM
Many people think back favorably to the days when slavery was commonplace. In fact, it was never fully abolished, despite what you may think: slavery is alive and well in prisons. From Penal labor in the United States [wikipedia.org] (emphasis mine):
(Score: 3, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 19, @04:17PM (2 children)
>Show your commitment!
I got my first big raise (+23%) the day after I complained to the company President that the bank wasn't approving my home purchase mortgage.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday January 20, @08:48PM (1 child)
Wish I'd thought of that line! But I suppose you really were serious about buying a house, and had the bank's requirements to show to the president. Expect that 23% increase raised your pay to the minimum the bank would accept. And off you went with a big smile of gratitude. And after the door closed behind you, maybe the president got a bigger smile on his face!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 20, @09:40PM
Well, it was a small company on Miami Beach (and likely the ONLY company on Miami Beach that would ever pay me for my degree/skills), and they advertised: "Minimum education: BS" - so, when I interviewed (with my MS degree) I recognized my hiring manager (correctly) as a cheap bastard and when he asked my salary requirements I bid BSEE salary rate for the day: $30K. Small company burned through $10M in market money in record time and went on 10% pay cuts to encourage people to find other work. I interviewed other places but didn't find anything/place I'd rather be doing, though I did find placement for a couple of other employees which they took... time marches on, I'm trying to buy the house, I "lock in" a good rate and the market drifts up after I "lock in" - my bank drags their feet about approval out past 90 days, and then comes back with "rejected: time of employment too short." Well, assholes, it's 3 months longer than it was when I applied... Truth of the matter: they were waiting to see if the interest rates would drift back down so they could make a sure profit when they sold my mortgage, and they didn't, so make up some B.S. (perhaps if my time of employment were longer it would have lowered my risk profile sufficiently for them to profit, but still.... 90 days to come up with that?) Anyway, that's what I bitched to Prez about, and he said: "Well, at least you're not on paycuts like the rest of the crew." to which I answered "Well, actually, market rate for my MSEE degree is $36K, so I sort of am..." and that was the trigger for the raise to $37K the next day (or maybe two days, I forget.) As for the banks, I opened the newspaper, picked the lowest rate on the mortgage page (which was a tiny bit lower than the rate I locked in 90 days prior), applied, and was approved within a week. I'm sure the extra salary helped.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19, @12:12PM
They don't sound like they are very hardcore.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Gaaark on Thursday January 19, @12:58PM (4 children)
So, instead of making a quality product, they are focusing on getting rid of the people who could (conceivably) make a quality product. So..... expect less quality product...if that is possible.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday January 19, @02:25PM
That's what copilot is for.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Thursday January 19, @04:19PM (2 children)
>they are focusing on getting rid of the people who could (conceivably) make a quality product.
I would expect you could lay off 20%+ of Microsoft's workforce with just about negligible impact to their products' quality. However, I'd be willing to bet that's not the sectors they are focusing, I bet they're focusing on who they can lay off without negatively impacting their quarterly profit numbers through at least 2H2023.
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 19, @07:08PM (1 child)
Maybe it's like that earlier story about Google layoffs: they have to do it because their profits seem to be dipping from absurdly huge down to only unreasonably huge, and they are under investor pressure to maintain those absurdly huge profits, so something must be done!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 20, @02:27AM
The real pressure investors put on company executives is in the value of their options packages...
Україна досі не є частиною Росії Слава Україні🌻 https://news.stanford.edu/2023/02/17/will-russia-ukraine-war-end
(Score: 3, Funny) by Runaway1956 on Friday January 20, @01:10AM
Does anyone want his resume?
Abortion is the number one killed of children in the United States.
(Score: 2) by jb on Friday January 20, @02:10AM
Can we take that as an admission then that everything Microsoft did in the past was for religious growth, before their sudden decision to switch to the secular?
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Friday January 20, @04:23PM