Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab said on Monday it is offering voluntary buyouts to about 60,000 employees, or more than a quarter of its global workforce, as the technology giant looks to contain costs and help fund its massive AI investments.
Meaning, fund their losses. The receipts are coming due.
An alternate read would be: freeing cash to pour into AI. Something something eggs and baskets… either way, they’re fucked.
Maybe I’m missing something but how is buying out 60,000 jobs freeing up money? That seems like a huge amount of money.
Because it comes out of one-time capital and reduces ongoing liability. Stupid, I know, but the accountants say it good.
I suspect it would be something like: massive layoffs -> stock prices rise -> issue new stock -> waste on AI -> rehire new staff at lower wages -> rinse and repeat
Freeing cash to pay for the debt they’ve already accumulated from AI expenditures which will never be profitable.
They were struggling before and Copilot has been a disappointment they can’t admit to. They were going to be the first to fall. But not last.
If microsoft is a casualty of the upcoming market crash, that would be so hilarious.
They’re already making losing plays. They spent too much building out worthless technology that no one wants, and now they’re amputating parts of the company to help pay off the debt.
They’re just trying to fail gracefully at this point.
I can’t believe I’m going to watch Microsoft go bankrupt in my lifetime.
Genuinely I’m curious what will happen if that’s the case and windows just ceases to exist
Broadcom will buy it. Technologies go to Broadcom to die…
And then will come The Age of Linux!
Something something year of the linux desktop?
(Spoiler: every year is the year of the linux desktop… pre-installed windows is the only reason why most people don’t notice)
Eh some other company will buy it. Windows is still one of Microsoft’s main money maker. Also what company would want to miss on the sweet sweet data Windows is collecting, that alone is worth tens of billions.
No it is not their main money generator. Their personal computing segment of the company which includes Windows, Xbox, Bing and surface is less than 15B in revenue compared with 100B for Azure. So windows is literally a single digit percentage of their revenue.
Yeah the way I see it either A) Someone buys it although it probably will lose user share maybe it becomes a corporate OS B) A bunch of proprietary Linux distros / forks crop up C) MacOS
Novell Windows?
There is civil infrasructure still running Windows 3.1, unfortunately.
Windows will continue to exist for a long time after any fall. And once it finally becomes impractical to remain on that platform, most users will go to MacOS and most businesses will go to Linux. And a lot of Windows software will run in emulation on both platforms for the foreseeable future.
Not a fan of it, but what if the older versions still needed by some places get reverse engineered by AI and upgraded to be up to date? For some things you don’t need the latest, you just need what has worked for years. Just need to keep it air gaped from the internet, but that could be patched.
Using AI would be antithetical to patching old software. That said, there are groups keeeping older OSes secure with fan patches.
Old stuff shouldn’t be changed. As long as it’s offline and it’s reliable, it will keep chugging.
The only problem is when it doesn’t, parts replacement gets much more difficult.
People will use ‘AI’ to vibecode their own OS. Some will even sell them. Thousands of similar ‘Microsoft Lite’ companies will pop up. Most will fail.
The ghost of Steve Jobs would be laughing his ass off…
PCs will die with Windows. The younger generations already don’t use PCs. The tech industry could fill the void with thin clients for office use…
This has been Google’s angle for years. They’ve been pushing chromium browser apps. Who really uses Windows anymore. It’s just layer that gets users to a browser. Browsers are cross platform. Windows is already kind of obsolete.
Good thing Google didn’t fuck that up and kill off their Chrome-based operating system… Wait
And on the annual eve of the $1000+ Project Helix too!
Fortune says it will be $1200-1800, insane.
What’s that?
The next Xbox gaming system.
Out of the playbook: “So you need to make number go up while paying for silicon valley’s money burning scam!”
Instead of making a better product.
A buyout like this is a huge upfront cost, the savings come much later. Risky move that implies Microsoft is sure about its funding short term. Should that dry up, the whole company collapses?
I imagine there’s also an element of obfuscating that these are effectively layoffs. Offer a small amount upfront and stem the anger to prevent worker organizing and work stoppages.
The company is definitely going to be massively brightsizing: everybody with an opportunity will move on and take the money, and the ones remaining are going to be both demoralized and less re-employable.
I’d take it!
Apparently they need a good quarter and don’t care about the next couple of years. Linux wins.
Corporate branches are viruses that kill their host.
I still have a theory that they never really got rid of Clippy. They turned it into a black ops project, and then years later, surprise!
It’s CoPilot!
poor clippy deserved better :(
Honestly shame on anyone still working there.
Anyone able to interpret this, levels?
“This offer will be available to eligible employees in participating teams in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the United States at level 70 and below,”
They could probably cut the entire Copilot division and a third of middle management and come out well ahead.
