Microsoft to lay off 9100 employees

Adding more to the employee woes, software giant Microsoft has been asked to slash 10 percent of its workforce, which amounts to around 9,100 employees. The firm had close to 91,000 employees on its payrolls at the end of July-September quarter. 

##CONTINUE##

"Calling for a 10 percent reduction on the company's payrolls would result in an approximately 10 percent gain in its earnings per share," said the brokerage firm Oppenheimer's analyst Brad Reback. Moreover, in the report for the institutional investors of Microsoft, he also pinpoints that the move will be good to signal that, for the company, profitability is more important than revenue growth during recession.

Earlier in October, Microsoft had put in place a hiring freeze on some of its divisions, such as entertainment and devices businesses that make products like X-Box and Zune. Infact, there were also unconfirmed reports about some major layoffs in 2009. Amidst the economic turmoil whereby companies in their bid to save costs have already laid off around 20 lakh employees in U.S. in 2008, the Microsoft's move will incur an adverse impact on the employees. The company is scheduled to release its second-quarter results for the fiscal year 2008-09 on January 22. 

-----------------------------

BY N/A

Source：SiliconIndia News Bureau