Microsoft said this morning it would cut 5,000 jobs as it slashes costs to compensate for slower revenue growth.
The positions will come from marketing, sales, R&D, finance, legal, human relations and IT at the 91,000-employee company. The jobs of 1,400 people will be eliminated on Thursday with the remainder disappearing during the next 18 months.
But that isn’t the whole story. The software giant plans to cut the cord to even more outside contractors – perhaps 15 percent of all it employs.
And it intends to hire several thousand people to fill new positions in businesses where it sees attractive opportunities, such as online search.
That means the total cuts to Microsoft’s staff will be more like 2,000 to 3,000 jobs, said CEO Steve Ballmer.
“We are in the midst of a once in a lifetime set of economic conditions,” said CEO Steve Ballmer on a conference call discussing the company’s disappointing second-quarter results. “The economic is resetting to a lower level of business and consumer spending.”
So at Microsoft, “we’re really putting the brakes on,” Ballmer said.
But the company is focused as well on gaining market share in markets it sees as ripe for growth. That includes: search; gaming, where is fields the Xbox 360 console; and cellular phones, where it sells Windows Mobile.
Ballmer also sees market share opportunities in Microsoft’s Office business.
“We have a lot of opportunities to work on market share,” Ballmer said.
Posted by Mark Boslet 
