Analyst Says Microsoft Should Lay Off 10 Percent
In a report issued last week, Oppenheimer & Co. analyst Brad Reback said Microsoft's profitability would be helped by a 10 percent reduction of its full-time global workforce of 91,000 employees.
The statement added fuel to speculation that flared earlier this month when anonymous Microsoft blogger Mini-Microsoft said Microsoft layoffs could be coming on Jan. 15.
But according to solution providers, Microsoft has been quietly reducing channel head count and cutting channel marketing budgets, although this hasn't yet had any major effect on their business.
"I've seen them make a number of cuts -- my marketing budget from Microsoft has declined 80 percent this year," said one source, who requested anonymity.
"Each team in the U.S. subsidiary was asked to give back 10 percent of their funds, but most of that was from the national channel teams connected to the partner program. I haven't felt anything from a field level perspective yet," said another source.
In the past two months, Microsoft has laid off small numbers of staff in its Razorfish and Oslo, Norway-based FAST Search divisions, both of which the company gained through acquisitions.
