I don't believe for a minute that MS are in any sort of financial trouble. Nor Sony. Nor many others. But this recession is the perfect way for big corps to trim the fat without too much resistance from unions and staff bodies, without too much negative press, and if your share price is dropping anyway, now is the time to do all the dirty work. We're all panicking, wondering if we'll keep our jobs, so these companies can get away with stuff that would otherwise be questioned. Don't believe the hype.
It's probably down to the fact that Vista hasn't penetrated the business/commercial market as well as hoped/projected.
Kenco_uk, if true then some people related to that department will be kicked out... but they are not. +1 for cmjUK
Why? According to their figures, Vista was a record seller. They are missing a few upgrade purchases since plenty of people didn't bother to pay extra to upgrade to Vista, but virtually every PC sold had some variety of windows on it. I'm sure they didn't reap the profits they were hoping for or expecting, but they are incredibly cash-rich - they have billions in the bank. Obviously, it is sensible to not be complacent, but reducing the worldwide headcount by a mere 5000 isn't going to save *that* much money. As much as many would assume that Microsoft on its knees would be evidence of karma at play, it's not going to happen just yet.
I don't think this is any worse than other company lay-offs. Sure, MS is rich in inconcievable ways (around $100 Billion in the bank) but they got there through lucrative buisness practices, including layoffs to maintain profit and increase their diminishing stock price, which is as always, overvalued. http://bigcharts.marketwatch.com/quickchart/quickchart.asp?symb=MSFT&sid=0&o_symb=MSFT&freq=1&time=9 Have a look at that link and it should help you all understand why layoffs are taking place.
