Microsoft Announces 3,000 New Layoffs
May 6, 2009 at 12:18am ET by Vanessa Fox
Today, Microsoft announced that it had delivered layoff notices to 3,000 employees across several divisions (1,200 in Washington state). This comes just months after an initial round of 1,400 who were let go when Microsft announced second quarter earnings. At that time, Microsoft said it planned to eliminate 5,000 jobs this year, and Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer said that today’s news was phase two of that plan (with the remainder planned for sometime before June 2010 and “as quickly as possible”).
However, Steve Ballmer didn’t rule out additional layoffs. In an internal memo, he said:
As we move forward, we will continue to closely monitor the impact of the economic downturn on the company and if necessary, take further actions on our cost structure including additional job eliminations.
No word on what departments were hit, although an anonymous comment to the Mini-Microsoft blog claimed that no layoffs happened in Live Search and in fact, they have been given extra headcount while Windows was heavily affected. Another anonymous commenter claimed that entire groups in MSN were eliminated. Others reported that several groups within Microsoft Advertising were impacted.
If MSN was indeed hit, that move seems a bit shortsighted as a large portion of Microsoft’s search traffic still seems to come through MSN rather than Live Search. Seems that Microsoft should focus on making an attractive property even more attractive if since it accounts for so much of its valuable search traffic.
So far, little concrete has been announced about how these cuts impact Microsoft’s product plans, but you can follow the disccussion on Techmeme.
Share, Bookmark & Discuss This Article
More:
Keep Updated: News Via Email | News Via RSS Feed | News Via Twitter
See more stories like this in the Members Library! Check out the Microsoft: Business Issues, Microsoft: Employees sections of the Members Library where this story is filed. Members also get access to exclusive video content, a members-only weekly & monthly newsletter, plus more. Check out all the benefits!
ONE COMMENT ON Microsoft Announces 3,000 New Layoffs
TOP STORIES
SEARCH NEWS BRIEFS
FEATURES & ANALYSIS
RECENT COMMENTS
- Carrie Hill said " SupidScript, First let me apologize for misleading or misdirecting you. I continually find it a stru"
- Mike-in-Denver said " I thought that it was interesting that Google advertised it's search service rather than any of thei"
- Kelsey Childress said " @stupidscript: You are right. Texting behind the wheel is as dangerous as drunk driving and should n"
FREE DAILY SEARCH NEWS RECAP!
Stay on top of all the search news with our daily summary, the SearchCap newsletter. View a sample ›
STAY CURRENT THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.
SMX Web Site » | SMX Difference » | SMX News »
Join us at an upcoming SMX event:
- SMX West – March 2-4, 2010
- SMX Munich – March 23-24, 2010
- SMX Toronto – April 8-9, 2010
- SMX Sydney – April 22-23, 2010
- SMX Advanced London – May 17-18, 2010
- SMX Advanced Seattle – June 8-9, 2010
- SMX East – October 4-6, 2010
- SMX Stockholm – October, 2010
Learn more about search marketing with our free online webcasts and webinars from our sister site, Search Marketing Now. Upcoming online events include:
- PPC Content Networks and Placement Campaigns – February 9, 2010
- Need to Know SEO – February 11, 2010
- PPC & the Long Tail – February 18, 2010
- Hey! That’s My Conversion – February 25, 2010
TRACK US SOCIALLY
- Wall Street Journal Recommended Reading
- Ad Age Power 150 Blog
- Technorati Top 100 Blog
- Techmeme Leaderboard Source
- Best Search Engine Community/Forum
Featured sites from our Blogroll
- Original Signal – Transmitting SEO
- Sebastian’s Pamphlets
- Google Operating System
- SEO by the SEA
- Niall Kennedy’s Weblog
Get Your Search Engine Land
Premium Membership!
Become a premium member today and receive:
- Express commenting privileges & photo.
- Exclusive videos & newsletters.
- Discounts to our SMX conferences.
- Access to "How To" & Other Archives.
© 2010 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Google, Yahoo & Microsoft logos trademark respective companies and used with permission.
Vanessa,
Just ran across your post about the layoffs last week. Unfortunately the Live Search team did take a hit, at least in Colorado, where the Virtual Earth imagery production shop got decimated. In a building with about 80 people in it, the home office saw fit to boot 15 fte’s and 11 contractors including a good chunk of the production crew (including myself) that actually processed all the imagery and 3d stuff for the new cities that get uploaded to the VE site. I have no idea how it will go forward but it will be slowly!
It seems pretty obvious that someone in Redmond didn’t want to deal with layoffs in their own backyard so they pushed them on us but that’s just a hunch.