Microsoft is trying to acquire Activision Blizzard (UPDATE: CMA says NO!).

[scoobysi]

The mask slips again, disgraceful behaviour.

[Stanley]

Those 10k staff would be gone deal or no deal, but it does put the numbers in perspective and does a lot to demonstrate how overly powerful these corporations are. 
 

Imagine being in a position with that much power - click your fingers and 10,000 are in the dole queue. 
 

What was that about workers rights again? 

[RubberJohnny]

They hired 50,000 in 2021 off the back of the big boosts the pandemic gave to tech, 10,000 sounds like a big number, but for an organisation of this size it's not even equal to a years recruitment.

[Stanley]

It’s still 10,000 peoples lives being affected right after Christmas during a cost of living crisis, it’s not just numbers. 
 

The timing with that ceo flexing again isn’t a good look either. 

[Uzi]

I think they are hurting for money too so I get it

 

 

 

[David Kenny]

36 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

They hired 50,000 in 2021 off the back of the big boosts the pandemic gave to tech, 10,000 sounds like a big number, but for an organisation of this size it's not even equal to a years recruitment.

I don't think anyone is concerned about Microsoft being able to accommodate this. 

 

This is a disgusting move for a company that makes as much money as Microsoft.

[Kevvy Metal]

Mega-corp gonna mega-corp. 

[PaB]

1 hour ago, RubberJohnny said:

They hired 50,000 in 2021 off the back of the big boosts the pandemic gave to tech, 10,000 sounds like a big number, but for an organisation of this size it's not even equal to a years recruitment.

Ah that’s fine then. 

[Count Buffalos]

Yes, that’s quite the take.

[mikeyl]

So the layoffs are affecting their games division and not just the software nerds responsible for providing technical support for the military or ensuring my Microsoft Teams status can never be permanently set to ‘Available’.

 

 

[dose]

7 hours ago, RubberJohnny said:

They hired 50,000 in 2021 off the back of the big boosts the pandemic gave to tech, 10,000 sounds like a big number, but for an organisation of this size it's not even equal to a years recruitment.

10,000 IS a big number, what are you on about?

What difference would it make if they had hired say 11,000 in 2021?

[Benny]

*Innocently reading the expected forum takes on the massive layof...*

 

Spoiler

 

[SozzlyJoe]

To put the only decent spin on it, given their size they might easily be able to cut 10,000 people through voluntary redundancies or not backfilling and they are just announcing it to look hard to the stock market, as layoffs are in vogue atm

 

https://news.stanford.edu/2022/12/05/explains-recent-tech-layoffs-worried/

 

Talk of restricting it to particular divisions undermines this a little.

[Stanley]

I didn’t take away anything positive from reading that article, on the contrary mass layoffs contribute to stress and literally kill people. 

[JPL]

To be fair, I think I’d sack the entire Halo Infinite team as well. 6 years in development and that’s all we got?

[SozzlyJoe]

30 minutes ago, Stanley said:

I didn’t take away anything positive from reading that article, on the contrary mass layoffs contribute to stress and literally kill people. 

 

That was supposed to show why firing people seems to be a virus all big tech is catching at the minute, not to provide solace, sorry. It's just 10,000 to a company the size of MS is something they could conceivably just shed through voluntary means over time, rather than an Elon style 'event'.

[RubberJohnny]

Yes, similarly I wasn't excusing it, just actually putting it in perspective after a post that said it would put things in perspective but did nothing of the sort.

 

People are really spikey in here, eh?

 

I also love "firing people after Christmas" as an objection. Every time is either "after Christmas" or "before Christmas", what are you talking about?

[Stanley]

4 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

 

 

I also love "firing people after Christmas" as an objection. Every time is either "after Christmas" or "before Christmas", what are you talking about?

Fucking hell. 

[RubberJohnny]

I mean firing people before Xmas is a deplorable thing because people usually have higher costs to buy presents, and also Scrooge. None of that is true in mid-January, the pre-Xmas costs have kind of stopped a while ago m8.

 

I know there was an article on the BBC recently about some people getting into debt and paying it off later, but the average income in Microsoft is apparently $165,000, so I don't think they're really in that cohort, they're with us in the privileged tech workers bracket, I mean fuck me that's triple what I earn.

[stir fry]

The costs of Christmas don't disappear in the middle of January tho, it's well renowned as a time that people struggle due to the (usually) increased length of time between paychecks and the amount of spend.

 

But in any event the human impact of these decisions recently just feels secondary to their corporate growth strategy. I think Stripe was maybe one of the few recently which felt less disgusting, in regards to severance but I could have that mixed up with another one of these many layoffs

[Stanley]

I’m fairly sure all the people being laid off won’t be earning that. 
 

Whatever, it proves to me just how desensitised we have become as a society or race even, that 10,000 people being laid off, triggered by other similar lay offs, is met with a shrug of the shoulders. 

[Sarlaccfood]

39 minutes ago, SozzlyJoe said:

they could conceivably just shed through voluntary means over time, rather than an Elon style 'event'.

They’re not doing that though. 

 

There’s literally people online talking about how they attended the financial meeting the day before (showing record profits) and then going to bed and waking up to find they’ve been sacked. 

[SozzlyJoe]

Just now, Sarlaccfood said:

They’re not doing that though. 

 

There’s literally people online talking about how they attended the financial meeting the day before (showing record profits) and then going to bed and waking up to find they’ve been sacked. 

 

Well, that doubly sucks then as they don't need to do it that way. Not wanting to go to bat for MS here, I dislike them in general.

[RubberJohnny]

4 minutes ago, stir fry said:

I think Stripe was maybe one of the few recently which felt less disgusting, in regards to severance but I could have that mixed up with another one of these many layoffs

 

I think the Microsoft guys (i.e not contractors) do get pretty good severance (for the US), a couple of months pay and continuing benefits for most of the year.

[Stanley]

13 minutes ago, RubberJohnny said:

 

I think the Microsoft guys (i.e not contractors) do get pretty good severance (for the US), a couple of months pay and continuing benefits for most of the year.

When you put it like that they are doing them a favour. 

[RubberJohnny]

More words people didn’t say, eh? You ever get tired of this?

[Stanley]

Just now, RubberJohnny said:

More words people didn’t say, eh? You ever get tired of this?

Only your completely dry inhumane take on it all. It’s like taking to a robot. 

[RubberJohnny]

I'm in the tech industry, it's the best renumerated sector of the economy and Microsoft is one of the top companies to work for, I just think it's daft to pretend that people are going to be on the breadline due to this. Six months ago we had the hottest labour market going, with way-above-inflation pay rises, now there's some layoffs, but a small minority compared to the jobs available.

 

In the rest of the economy there are people striking so they don't get 20% paycuts and worse conditions, there are people struggling to heat their homes, I'm just saying maybe they deserve a bit more attention than those on lifetime incomes of $5 million?

[Stanley]

Stop being such an apologist. Why did Microsoft make these redundancies? 

[mikeyl]

It’s all relative if we think about what $70 billion actually looks like. I don’t really give too much of an F about what these IT nerds get up to, they ain’t gonna starve you are right. But 70 billion. And in the context of the post right before the layoffs of them allowing unionisation. 70 billion is a lot to piss against the wall for something you’re gonna have to share anyway.