Real cutbacks here....though not unique to Microsoft by any means.
http://www.dailyfinance.com/2009/07/30/microsoft-not-such-a-fun-place-to-work-anymore/Microsoft (MSFT) is going on a major cost-cutting diet to reign in expenses. The goal of CFO Chris Liddell is to save billions in costs to compensate for much slower revenue growth (if any) and adjust to a five-year market outlook that's far from rosy. Yep, it's the time-honored way for middle-aged, slow-growth companies to increase profits -- by slicing fat and squeezing perks.
As a result of this new-found frugality, employees of the Redmond, Washington giant will likely be feeling a bit less comfortable in upcoming years. The layoffs of roughly 5,000 employees since January 2009 were eerie reminders that even mighty Microsoft is not immune to the whims of the global economy. With the days of milk and honey on the wane, every pet project, business-class plane ticket, and internal startup is going to be called on the carpet as Redmond ratchets down.
The news of the impending and semi-permanent cutbacks come at the end of what may have been the sweetest run for any software company ever. Until this quarter, the last negative sales growth Microsoft posted was 23 years ago. The company has over $31 billion in cash on the books, a number that is growing by billions each month as license renewals for its popular Office productivity suite and the respected Windows server line rack up cash.
