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[Tom Warren] Microsoft lays off nearly 1,000 people across the company including Xbox division

Zathalus

Zathalus

Member
Ezekiel_ said:
Jim Carrey What GIF
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... you are one of them. Everyone here can see your emoji spam in this thread.
 
remember_spinal

remember_spinal

Banned
jakinov said:
Why would they layoff people because of the acquistion? Microsoft is just joninng in on all the other tech companies in downsizing.

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Are all those tech companies also making record breaking acquisitions?
 
Kamina

Kamina

Golden Boy
Smells like corpo greed / appeasing investors.
Sad that few companies are willing to stick with their employees even in less fruitful times, but to be prepared to gain momentum once these bad times are over.
 
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reksveks

Member
tusharngf said:
AR VR is dead at microsoft ?
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Yeah, it does look like the hololens team is alot smaller. No point fighting the wages that Apple and Meta were offering.

Think they might stick to the Software side and maybe keep a smaller team for the HW for the military prototypes that's kinda failing as well.
 
V

VolticArchangel

Member
Just a heads up for everyone:

This is mostly related to Azure/Classified Govt projects (military sims) and some HW engineers on the Xbox division (these guys were restructured into their IoT sector, personally know a couple of them).

Microsoft Xbox first party are not affected by this, at least, not yet...
 
T

Three

Gold Member
reksveks said:
Yeah, it does look like the hololens team is alot smaller. No point fighting the wages that Apple and Meta were offering.

Think they might stick to the Software side and maybe keep a smaller team for the HW for the military prototypes that's kinda failing as well.
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As far as I remember a lot of the team didn't like that it was being sold to the military. I think some of them left already.
 
StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
akaFullmetal said:
That sucks, especially the guy that was there 12 years. I hope they find work soon.
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If they guy was working there for 12 years, he probably got a severance package of about 1 year worth of salary. Assuming the guy can find a job fast in the next 12 months for the same pay, he'll actually bank profits from it.

Good way to make extra cash. Get bounced from a job with a good pay out and get a new job 3 months later. Even long time ago when I got let go and got about 2-3 months pay out, I got a job literally a month later, so I banked a bit of money. I got hired so fast I didn't even collect one EI payment.

Sucks to get fired, but people should know it can always happen. Keep good relations with friends, fam, ex-coworkers and recruiters because you never know when you'll need help getting a new job. On the other hand, be an ass or loner and it'll be much tougher to get rehired.
 
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Cyberpunkd

Cyberpunkd

Member
ChorizoPicozo said:
I don't remember where (windows weekly) I believe. That thech companies are going to be laying off people.
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They already started after Y Combinator (largest tech incubator in the US) sent opinion in May telling startups to buckle up for 18-24 month freeze on fundraising.
 
kyoji

kyoji

Member
FalsettoVibe said:
MS has $105B in the bank. Hope they get nice severance packages.
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This isnt the flex you think it is, severance pays hardly ever make up for the amount of salary and benefits thats left on the table, i think if you were to ask most people would they rather severance pay package or continued employment, the latter would be the answer
 
R

reksveks

Member
Three said:
As far as I remember a lot of the team didn't like that it was being sold to the military. I think some of them left already.
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Yeah, there is a general discontent with MS and the big tech companies about working with the military including the hololens team.

Also the rightful firing of Kipman probably would have caused a bit of confusion around the direction imo.

Need to find the stories about the meta/apple wages for their respective ar/vr divisions.

https://thehill.com/policy/technolo...o as much as $180,000, according to Bloomberg.
 
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Godot25

Banned
remember_spinal said:
This would make sense if ti weren’t juxtaposed with a 70 billion dollar acquisition lol
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You are buying publisher with highest profit margin in entire AAA gaming industry for that 70 billion dollars.

It's not like their business model is not proven or something like that.

People are acting like layoffs are something that is not happening in industry. Microsoft is laying off workforce every financial year (commonly in july) because of shift in their strategy. Every big company is doing the same thing. But now growth stopped so it's common to "trim the fat." But to act that laying off less than 1000 people from 250 000+ is big deal is pretty sad.

Also. I don't want to sound like I try to defend Microsoft or any big corpo. But one of the reason why those companies have huge profits and margins and are successful is because they are able to react rather quickly on situation on the market. And laying off 1000 redundant (in view of Microsoft) people is absolutely part of "reacting on situation on the market"
 
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StreetsofBeige

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
kyoji said:
This isnt the flex you think it is, severance pays hardly ever make up for the amount of salary and benefits thats left on the table, i think if you were to ask most people would they rather severance pay package or continued employment, the latter would be the answer
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Depends on someone's career situation, and knowing inherently how easy it is to get a job after.

A lot of people with good jobs (like MS people) who are closing in on retirement time are often happy as fuck to get a pay out. And so are ones who can often get a job fast (sales, marketing and IT).

For me, I have no problem if my company gave me the boot. And I'm not even close to retirement age. I'd get around 1 year severance and could land a new job within a year for sure. Some places are super generous with packages too (who knows if MS is). My brother got offered a voluntary pay out package which was about 1 year salary, estimated current year annual bonus, AND another pay out for next year's bonus (which was estimated to match). I have never heard of any company firing someone giving a bonus pay out for next year!
 
R

reksveks

Member
Godot25 said:
You are buying publisher with highest profit margin in entire AAA gaming industry for that 70 billion dollars.
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It is kinda weird cause ABK operating margins is definitely greater than big chunks of MS.

Business wise, still makes sense to go through with the deal.
 
Mr Reasonable

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
dvdvideo said:
Sounds like they are laying off in areas where they have overlap and redundancy. But what I don't get is in a company this size, why they aren't first trying to find them other positions in other areas.
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It'll be because every area has it's own budgets, it's own management structure, etc. Microsoft, like most corporations, as a whole is more like many, many little companies operating independently, and though the company as a whole may have a surplus of cash, a particular manager can't access it beyond their budget - including increasing their wage bill.

If a particular manager isn't hiring, which might be because they don't have a vacancy or the wage budget then there's no job.

That's how it was when I worked in a corporate job and while if the CEO (or someone close to them) said "make sure we find jobs for these guys" it could and would happen, then it would undermine the whole point of these restructures and efficiency drives. It's brutal, but it was par for the course where I worked and happened annually, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft do the same.
 
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Wildebeest

Wildebeest

Member
Tech is in trouble because the three big bets for the future were Blockchain, VR, and AI. None are delivering. AI is maybe the strongest pillar left standing but things like driverless trucks and cab seem outdated sci-fi like flying cars and robot maids.
 
THE DUCK

THE DUCK

voted poster of the decade by bots
Mr Reasonable said:
It'll be because every area has it's own budgets, it's own management structure, etc. Microsoft, like most corporations, as a whole is more like many, many little companies operating independently, and though the company as a whole may have a surplus of cash, a particular manager can't access it beyond their budget - including increasing their wage bill.

If a particular manager isn't hiring, which might be because they don't have a vacancy or the wage budget then there's no job.

That's how it was when I worked in a corporate job and while if the CEO (or someone close to them) said "make sure we find jobs for these guys" it could and would happen, then it would undermine the whole point of these restructures and efficiency drives. It's brutal, but it was par for the course where I worked and happened annually, I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft do the same.
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Understood but there is also brutal innificiency in losing talented employees only to hire someone outside later. Not saying they could place everyone, just feels like they didn't even try. (Could be wrong)
 
Mr Reasonable

Mr Reasonable

Completely Unreasonable
dvdvideo said:
Understood but there is also brutal innificiency in losing talented employees only to hire someone outside later. Not saying they could place everyone, just feels like they didn't even try. (Could be wrong)
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That makes sense but unfortunately, like I said, if there's no opening, there's no opening, and while you're right, these talented people are assets to the company as a whole, they're not to a loss to a fully staffed department - they'd be an addition they can't afford. TBH, I know people who have been headhunted by Microsoft, so it's entirely possible that half of them will end up back there at some point in the not too distant future, not to say that it doesn't suck and I of course sympathise with their position - just as people sympathised with me when my job was made non viable when some corporate structure changes were made. It's just how it is when working for a corporation, is my experience.
 
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anthony2690

anthony2690

Member
jakinov said:
Why would they layoff people because of the acquistion? Microsoft is just joninng in on all the other tech companies in downsizing.

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Amazon got rid off 100k employees?! Damn, how many people do they employ?! That seems insane.
 
FalsettoVibe

FalsettoVibe

Member
kyoji said:
This isnt the flex you think it is, severance pays hardly ever make up for the amount of salary and benefits thats left on the table, i think if you were to ask most people would they rather severance pay package or continued employment, the latter would be the answer
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I actually meant for my comment to be the opposite of a flex and was trying to be sarcastic....lol. Guess I worded it wrong.
 
draliko

draliko

Member
Ah the usually armchair CEOs of gaf... This forum it's practically a fortune 500 CEO gathering... layoffs happen in every business let alone in a huge corpo... you guys really love to start console warring masked as irony... Call back when you run a business, my family does and layoffs are the norm, nobody likes them but it's a necessity
 
yazenov

yazenov

Member
That MS "war chest" should sustain those jobs. But they chose to finance the money sink that is Gamepass instead.

Not blaming them though since its a business after all, and the main goal is profit.
 
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reinking

reinking

Gold Member
Ansphn said:
Some people only see the world through console warring glasses. No one mentioned Sony or PlayStation once in this thread.
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Some people only focus on the few post that could be considered warring instead of contributing thoughts on the topic.

Really, in a topic like this there isn't much to say unless we start seeing more. Good luck to those that are impacted.
 
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