Microsoft FY09Q3 Results
Last time we did quarterly results, it was a doooozy. Immediate layoffs for 1,400 Microsofties and sometime-in-the-next-18-months layoffs for 3,600 more. Of course, the layoffs were offset somewhat by continued crazy hiring for Live Search (should we expect a work of Shakespeare to pop out of there sometime soon, too?).
What kind of questions do you want to be asked during the conference call? Some off of the top of my head:
- So... how's that, ah, layoff... thingy.. going?
- Which groups and products are specifically being affected by layoffs?
- What other cost-cutting measures are in effect?
- What are the causes in drop of revenue and what are the expectations going forward (will Microsoft give guidance this time)?
- What bright spots are there in profits?
- How is gaining share going?
- The EU seems to be pulling its leg way back for a full-on kick to Microsoft's financial groin. How does the defense against EU charges look to protect shareholder money for additional EU fines?
- What does a financial geek have to do to get a beer at The Commons?
And you know, speaking of The Commons: I trekked over there today (meh, not the sunniest day) and I have to say it's an impressive space. I walked around admiring the scope of the project, thinking "This is what Windows built. This is what Office built." I then reflected on the irony that it's Mr. Robbie Bach's Entertainment and Devices moving into the new campus with The Commons. Windows and Office funded this extravagant place for the folks who managed to burn through $8,000,000,000USD+ on the Xbox, be shown how it's done right from Nintendo with the Wii, dash the Zune against the juggernaut iPod, and have the iPhone drop-kick WinMobile to Mars.
Microsoft Senior Leadership Team is rewarding something here moving these people into such a great place, but it's not anything that I could make sense of while I wandered the new campus...
I'll update this post later with commentary about the quarterly results. In the meantime, some of my favorite places to track insights and opinions on MSFT quarterly results:
- Mr. Joe Wilcox over at Microsoft Watch.
- Mr. Todd Bishop's Microsoft Blog at TechFlash.
- Mr. Joseph Tartakoff somewhere within paidContent.org
Update: closing the loop here a little bit later than I wanted (sorry, I was bounced off the grid for a while):
Wow: have a plunge in profits and get rewarded by your stock shooting up 10%+ in one day! Sweet! And by "Sweet" I mean none of this makes a lick of sense except to look at an article like Cost-cutting saves Microsoft stock after rough 3Q and realize that the market is supposedly rewarding the stock price and recognizing appreciation for the reduction in overhead and expenditures.
So now, we must have a plan to have constant announcements about reduction of expenditures.
Announcement #1: No more Company Picnic. Ever. Next?
What would be on your short list of things to cut back on? MGX? The Company Meeting? Beer at morale events? Soda? The Company Store? Whole product groups? Your group? Yeah, I don't know how often that last one makes the list. Though I have friends who have sniffed the way the FY10 wind is blowing and are getting the hell out of groups that have spent more time talking about what they are going to do than actually doing anything or - get this - shipping something to actual customers. You know, the type of groups that make Yahoo's Carol Bartz slip in the F-bomb.
I'm surprised to learn from Ms. Fried's Company Picnic article above that The Company Meeting is still on. As much as I love the Company Meeting, it was totally dead and gone to me in my mind. Talk about the most challenging Company Meeting ever. Yes, we'll have Win7 and coming in close Office 14, along with other emerging products. But how in the world to you manage to pull off a great Company Meeting within our current environment? You have to take the big issues head-on, and part of that will be looking at the upcoming MSPoll numbers and actually sharing with Microsofties who they hell were let go as part of the layoff. And why.
The Company Picnic boggled my mind just looking at the logistical nightmare it had turned into. Tell you what: if we reduce the company size back down to something reasonable, we should bring it back. But for now, I'll be happy with my group renting space for a family morale team event at Vasa Park.
CRF: unmoderated comment thread: Microsoft FY09Q3 Results.
239 comments:
«Oldest ‹Older 201 – 239 of 239>Those who went in the first round, what should I expect in "the room", what questions I should be asking if any, and is there anything I should do prior to the meeting?
You work now in an US or Europe site ?
The procedure seems to be different in US than the one which I experienced in Europe at the end of January/begining of February ... ;)
Regards
Here is a link talking about layoff rumors on May 5th i.e. tomm.
http://www.techflash.com/Microsoft_layoff_buzz_intensifies_44295192.html
Tomorrow, C&O merge with SMSG. SMS&P restructure from four into two new segments; SMB Distribution and SMS&P Corporate. EPG restructures but no resegmentation. All marketing moves to former BMO. Most layoffs in the field in EPG and marketing x-group due mergers of organisations. Most layoffs this time is due reorg and happen in field. In FY10, layoffs will come in Windows Client and Windows Mobile post launches.
Mini-Microsoft-India posted new article MSR- The ray of Hope in Microsoft India
I can't figure out how folks are complaining about WHERE they sit -with what I'm hearing about major layoffs tomorrow, I would hope folks would be happy to sit anywhere. I know I am. Triple me up, put me in the oldest building, I don't care... unfortunately this economic climate doesn't afford the opportunity to be so choosy.
Someone correctly pointed out that being a partner is all about networking. But whoever believes that partners know about what is happening in the company could as well believe that Steve Ballmer could come and meaningfully participate in your next triage.
The facts are these:
- MICROSOFT HAS TOO MANY PARTNERS. PERIOD. The company nowadays is approaching a thousand partners. I heard from more than one source of a recent rule whereby for a new person to become a partner someone else has to leave that small selected group (in case a partner is reading: this last sentence is an example of irony!). But the rule has exceptions, because the company is hiring some people that have to come already at partner level – ex-Yahoos, for example – and because there are a few people in a few projects that already waited for too long for promotion to the next level, and the company cannot lose them at least for a while, and so it is better to have 1,012 partners for a while than to lose a dozen people that can return more on the investment than the other 1,000 partners. Yet, the thinking was that some of the other 1,000 partners would leave voluntarily, what is not happening.
- MICROSOFT HAS TOO MANY PARTNERS FOR THE WRONG REASON. For the same reason cited as an exception above, the company had too many people getting to level 67-68 just sitting around for enough years. Have you noticed how many Dev Managers and Test Directors are partners? It is just an absurdity born out of years of management incompetence. Yes: a great Dev Manager or Test Director may have enormous impact. But a partner was supposed to be able to run a unit as his/her own company, and that idea was lost long ago at Microsoft. Most of the Microsoft partners could get any startup poised to success and make poisoned to failure in less than 6 months. There are even partners chosen for diversity reasons! Worse is the number of ludicrous honorary titles being distributed without criteria. The craziness went for so long that some very technical IBM people that joined the company refused the title of Distinguished Engineer, for fear of being on the same category of some MBAs without any Engineering background. And then the Technical Fellow title was created!
- MICROSOFT HAS TOO MANY PARTNERS THAT FORGOT HOW TO WORK. Part of the word “network” is “work”. Yet, I’m tired or hearing people at Microsoft – partners or not – saying things like “this is not work for my level” or “my manager is not letting me work at my level”. Get a life! Most of these people cannot open Visual Studio and create the “Hello World” application in any programming language. Yet, here are these morons really believing that years of sucking up and getting at some artificial Microsoft level means that they can refuse to work, ignore what the company needs to get done, and start or finish every sentence citing they level. The lifeboat exercise meant nothing for many years, but now the reality is that a lot of people will go to small companies and will only recommend those ex-fellows that they know that produce results, instead of being action-oriented and putting up shows that result on nothing.
"A good friend of mine is a L66. He (in my opinion at least) is partner material"
Or... your opinion isnt shared by your VP...
(op of this comment here):
Yes - I know what it takes to be a partner (I was a partner when I left MS). Point is, that this person is well networked, and well known both inside and outside of MS. That doesn't mean they won't cut their entire team tomorrow. I'm not sure what's wrong about a highly motivated and intelligent person wanting to make partner.
The cynicism in the replies is expected, but thanks for reading.
Mini - techflash reported layoffs for tomorrow (5/5/09)
What do you think?
The market doesn't look happy with msft
http://www.traderbots.com/stocks/Stock.aspx?symbol=msft
nNthing happened today. All 2nd round of layoff BS can stop now.
I thank SILT for search investment. I worked for a startup and now back in search.
"What Windows and Office built ..."
This is one of the attitudes at MSFT that needs to disappear. Honestly, it sounds like a whiny jealous teenager rather than an employee. You work at the SAME COMPANY. We, us, they ... these attitudes will destroy a large company. If you don't believe it, take a look at GM and how these attitudes stagnated and destroyed the company from within. In this time of layoffs and cost cutting, moaning about how "they" have more they "we" do is trite and immature. You devalue the relevance of your blog with such pitiness.
It smelled very bad that over the weekend my lead replied to the time absence reporting email I submitted on Wednesday, and said he remembered a couple of days were missing.
Is number of the sick leave days related to the layoff package? I'll update if I get axed.
But C&O has already merged with SMSG a while back.
Do you mean some other unit merging with SMSG?
10:33am Anon is full of it.
"Tomorrow, C&O merge with SMSG." - This already happened months ago.
"SMS&P restructure from four into two new segments; SMB Distribution and SMS&P Corporate. EPG restructures but no resegmentation." I know for a fact that this isn't true.
Seriously, don't listen to these people, they have no idea what they are talking about.
SBA is the most ridicilious division in the history of Microsoft. In theory it could be a good idea to have a incubation division that stradles the line between research and productization that takes a nearer term view on groundbreaking ideas and tries to bring them to market. The reality is brutally sad by comparison.
The VP of the division is the absolute biggest retard of all time. I've heard that the guy has had product reviews for absolute non-working garbage in front of him and still gives them the thumbs up. I've also heard that they have dumped gobs of money and resources into technologies that have not progressed an inch and semi-products that have not generated dime-one in revenue.
It's time for a mercy killing, and I think they are on the radar.
Question: If you get laid off, I am sure that your corpnet/email access gets cut off, but do the Outlook emails/GAL stored on the hard disk of your home computer also get nuked?
I would not want to lose all my emails in my Outlook as they contain a lot of personal information as well, and finding every such email and forwarding it is not a very productive activity.
Would appreciate if somebody could answer this. Thanks!
Just got the official Balmer email. Layoffs are happening today.
Its official. Ballmer's email is waiting for you.
Wow, someone earlier nailed it. Mail just in from SteveB announcing layoffs. Sent out at 6 AM PST.
it does look like the second round is happenning today and some of the rumors going around were indeed true.
time to see who among us gets hit.
And here's the mail - announcing the next round. Whoever said 5/5 totally called it.
i always used to take the comments on the blog with a pinch of salt, but with the mail from SteveB and KT, its bang on !!!!
5th was predicted and 5th it is....
wishing everyone having a 'meeting' with their manager's today, the best of luck.
SB just confirmed the next wave of layoff today, May 5th; Check your emails
Hey Mary-Jo, this time please confirm with more sources before you blog that Zune is getting whacked. You really freaked me out last time.
This is one of the attitudes at MSFT that needs to disappear. Honestly, it sounds like a whiny jealous teenager rather than an employee.The complaint is real. A demented, deeply flawed compensation system that rewards money losing divisions at high rates than those working on windows, office.
looks like the 'reset' button has been hit again this morning. something wrong with that OS that the 'reset' button keeps getting pushed. or is it the user (leader)?
good luck to us all today...
Steve Balmer..
In January, in response to the global economic downturn, I announced our plan to adjust the company’s cost structure through spending reductions and job eliminations. Today, we are implementing the second phase of this plan.
This is difficult news to share. Because our success at Microsoft has always been the direct result of the talent, hard work, and commitment of our people, eliminating positions is hard.
Today’s action includes positions in the United States and in a number of countries around the world. In the U.S., affected employees will be notified directly by their managers today. In other countries, local leadership teams will provide more specific information about the impact to their organizations.
With this announcement, we are mostly but not all done with the planned 5,000 job eliminations by June 2010. We are moving quickly to reach this target in response to consistent feedback from our people and business groups that it’s important to make decisions and reduce uncertainty for employees as quickly as possible, and so that organizations can concentrate their efforts and resources on strategic objectives.
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.
For those of you directly affected by today’s announcement, I want to thank you for your contribution to Microsoft and assure you that we will continue to provide support as we did during the previous job eliminations.
And for everyone across the company, I want to reemphasize how much I appreciate the way you have pulled together to help the company respond to this difficult economic environment. There’s no doubt that these are very challenging times. But together, we are making the right choices to ensure that we will continue to deliver great products and position ourselves for strong future growth and profitability.
Thank you for your continued hard work, commitment, and focus.
Now it is official. The company is cutting the rest of the 5,000 jobs today. SteveB sent out the e-mail this morning. However, Headtrax and GAL are not updated yet.
Already started. Email from SteveB, Kevin Turner, Tony Scott
KEVIN TURNER Update: Realigning Resources and Reducing Costs 6.45pm IST 5/5
STEVEB: Realigning Resources and Reducing Costs 6.28pm IST 5/5
mini can you keep the blog unmoderated for a while so that we can be updated about what is happening?
It's on... emails from SteveB and Craig Mundie. SBA is on the chopping block! Woot.
Looking forward to my severance and peeing in someone's Cheerios if I can before I go.
Good thing I packed my shit yesterday.
From one of my favorite movies:
"Fuck you, fuck you, your cool, fuck you, and I'm out!"
I got cut today. Folks, there's a big story that needs to be told here and I'm just licking my chops getting ready to tell it. There'll be more. Stay tuned.
thines
I learned I was cut this morning. I can't figure it out as I'm one of the top consultants in a big field.
"All 2nd round of layoff ******** can stop now."
Whoops. Guess we weren't patient enough.
But what's happening? I'm sitting at home and just read SteveB's email. This blog is my source for the real side of Microsoft!!! But nothing is here!!!
it is fact now. today (5/5) steveb annouced the second phase of the layout plan, in u.s. and around the world.
"With this announcement, we are mostly but not all done with the planned 5,000 job eliminations by June 2010. "
RAVI VENKATESAN: Update: Realigning Resources and Reducing Costs
Hi mini.
Can you please turn the moderation off for a day or two.
I am one of the impacted employee, and I'd like to interact with others more closely.
I got cut today. (PM) My product is internal but key to delivering on business initiatives set at my GM's level. It's surprising. They will never make their already insane deliverable dates.
TWC got smacked with a stick and my little org lost about 10 people (I think).
You never feel as much like the Borg as you do when they cut you off without blinking.
It's amazing. I went from thinking about Microsoft 24/7 and being utterly devoted to my job to not having one in the space of a keystroke.
And I found out that I have to pay to move all my stuff back to Canada.
To sum up, this sucks.
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