Is there any sense to Microsofts 800 layoffs?
Today’s Microsoft layoffs — 800 employees — are surprising. Following the last round, executives seemingly slammed the axe into the chopping block, even though the full number of 5,000 layoffs planned over 18 months hadn’t been met. Late last night, TechFlash first reported that layoffs would be coming today. Microsoft started informing employees today, in what surely has to be an unexpected misfortune. So much time has passed since the last layoffs, the threat of more surely faded. For good reasons. Until these 800 pink slips, there were reasons to be cheerful on the Microsoft campus. Microsoft’s recent fiscal 2010 first-quarter results, where cost-cutting measures helped lift profits, are reason enough to be stunned by today’s layoffs. Microsoft beat Wall Street consensus. Typically companies announce layoffs right before or after troubling earnings results — not when the numbers are good, or in this case better. Something else: Windows 7 just launched, with Microsoft reporting st
