Seattle: Microsoft is going to sack at least 800 emoployees across its operations, on top of the 5,000 jobs it already eliminated under a plan to reduce costs that was announced in January. A spokesman for the software giant said that the latest job cuts are spread across the company's global operations, but about 200 are in and around its headquarters in Redmond, Washington.
According to Reuters, Microsoft originally had planned to cut 5,000 jobs, or about five percent out of 96,000, before June 2010. The Microsoft Spokesman said that the plan has been expanded with the new layoffs and is now complete, well ahead of schedule.
As of October 23, Microsoft had 91,005 employees worldwide, according to its website.
Showing posts with label US IT. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US IT. Show all posts
Friday, November 6, 2009
Saturday, August 22, 2009
IT Spending to fall faster
Spending on software and IT services will fall by 1.3 per cent to £39.5bn in 2009, according to figures from Pierre Audoin Consultants (PAC) and TechMarketView.
The figures are slightly worse than the one per cent decline forecast early in the year.
Many UK organisations have either frozen or cut their discretionary IT budgets, driving a 3.9 per cent drop in software investment and a 5.5 per cent decrease in project services spending.
The decline will be partially offset by a 3.1 per cent rise in outsourcing spend, as businesses aim to reduce their IT operating costs and focus on core, strategic activities.
Nick Mayes, analyst at PAC London, said the pipeline of new contract opportunities is expanding slowly, although clients continue to negotiate aggressively with suppliers.
"However, large suppliers with mature global delivery networks, intimate client relationships and annuity-based outsourcing businesses continue to fare better, as evident in the results of Logica, Atos Origin and Capgemini," he said.
The public sector remains the biggest spender on software and IT services, representing nearly 25 per cent of the UK market. It is also due to grow by 4.3 per cent this year to support border control and defence initiatives.
Spending under a prospective Tory government would not necessarily slow, according to Anthony Miller, managing partner at TechMarketView.
“There may well be a hiatus in kicking off new government IT projects pending the election,” he said.
“But whichever colour of party we see in government next year, we expect that the pace of outsourcing – and, dare we say, offshoring – will undoubtedly increase, more so with the Tories."
The industry sectors that will cut software and IT services investment the most severely this year are retail, services and manufacturing.
The figures are slightly worse than the one per cent decline forecast early in the year.
Many UK organisations have either frozen or cut their discretionary IT budgets, driving a 3.9 per cent drop in software investment and a 5.5 per cent decrease in project services spending.
The decline will be partially offset by a 3.1 per cent rise in outsourcing spend, as businesses aim to reduce their IT operating costs and focus on core, strategic activities.
Nick Mayes, analyst at PAC London, said the pipeline of new contract opportunities is expanding slowly, although clients continue to negotiate aggressively with suppliers.
"However, large suppliers with mature global delivery networks, intimate client relationships and annuity-based outsourcing businesses continue to fare better, as evident in the results of Logica, Atos Origin and Capgemini," he said.
The public sector remains the biggest spender on software and IT services, representing nearly 25 per cent of the UK market. It is also due to grow by 4.3 per cent this year to support border control and defence initiatives.
Spending under a prospective Tory government would not necessarily slow, according to Anthony Miller, managing partner at TechMarketView.
“There may well be a hiatus in kicking off new government IT projects pending the election,” he said.
“But whichever colour of party we see in government next year, we expect that the pace of outsourcing – and, dare we say, offshoring – will undoubtedly increase, more so with the Tories."
The industry sectors that will cut software and IT services investment the most severely this year are retail, services and manufacturing.
Profits up for IT Companies
Logica almost doubles profit for most recent half-year while CSC sees net income grow 5.5% despite revenue dip
Two IT services companies reported growing profits last week, providing some much-needed good news for the IT sector.
European IT services and BPO firm Logica grew pre-tax profits to £24 million for the second half of its financial year, up from £12 million for the same period last year. The company reported revenue growth of 6% (after correcting for the number of working days) to £1.87 billion, driven in the main by a 10% boost in outsourcing revenues.
At the same time, Logica cut the total number of subcontractors it employs by 20%. Beyond the 1,900 redundancies it has already declared, Logica said there would be no more job cuts for internal staff.
Meanwhile, US IT services and outsourcing company CSC managed to grow net income by 5.6% to $131 million for its most recent financial quarter, despite a decline in revenues of 12% to $3.9 billion.
CSC’s commercial outsourcing division and managed services arm each saw revenue fall steeply: by 22% to $840 million and by 17.6% to $1.56 billion respectively. These were tempered, however, by a 1.7% revenue increase for the North American public sector division to $1.52 billion.
The company also announced its intention to acquire the Brazilian division of bankrupt US management and technology consultancy BearingPoint. CSC described Brazil as South America’s “largest, most important and growing market”.
Two IT services companies reported growing profits last week, providing some much-needed good news for the IT sector.
European IT services and BPO firm Logica grew pre-tax profits to £24 million for the second half of its financial year, up from £12 million for the same period last year. The company reported revenue growth of 6% (after correcting for the number of working days) to £1.87 billion, driven in the main by a 10% boost in outsourcing revenues.
At the same time, Logica cut the total number of subcontractors it employs by 20%. Beyond the 1,900 redundancies it has already declared, Logica said there would be no more job cuts for internal staff.
Meanwhile, US IT services and outsourcing company CSC managed to grow net income by 5.6% to $131 million for its most recent financial quarter, despite a decline in revenues of 12% to $3.9 billion.
CSC’s commercial outsourcing division and managed services arm each saw revenue fall steeply: by 22% to $840 million and by 17.6% to $1.56 billion respectively. These were tempered, however, by a 1.7% revenue increase for the North American public sector division to $1.52 billion.
The company also announced its intention to acquire the Brazilian division of bankrupt US management and technology consultancy BearingPoint. CSC described Brazil as South America’s “largest, most important and growing market”.
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