Microsoft advised to lay off over 9,000 employees

New York (PTI): The world's top software firm Microsoft has been asked to cut its workforce by 10 per cent, or about 9,100 employees, to tell the market that profits are more important than revenue growth in difficult times.   Brokerage firm Oppenheimer & Co's analyst Brad Reback has said in a report on Microsoft that such layoff exercise "would be a healthy move for the company." The move would be well received by the market and would "signal that profitability is more important than revenue growth during this very difficult time," Reback added. Calling for a 10 per cent reduction on the company's payrolls, Reback said in his report for the institutional investors of Microsoft that this would result in an approximately 10 per cent gain in its earnings per share.   The software giant had close to 91,000 employees on its payrolls at the end of July-September quarter.   Earlier in October, Microsoft had put in place a hiring freeze on some of its divisions, such as entertainment and devices businesses that make products like X-Box and Zune. There have been some unconfirmed reports on blogs that the company would announce some major layoffs in the first month of 2009.   Microsoft is scheduled to release its second-quarter results for the fiscal year 2008-09 on January 22.   Battling the economic crisis, companies in their bid to save costs, have announced more than one lakh job cuts in the month of December alone in the US, while so far in 2008 there have been close to 20 lakh layoffs.

Yahoo India lays off 45 people; Viswanathan Krishnamurthi quits as CIO

BANGALORE: Yahoo! India on Wednesday laid off some 50 people, about 3% of its workforce, as part of a global downsizing move. This is the second round of layoffs in the company this year. Sources close to the company said that a part of the layoffs was based on performance, and the rest on job redundancies on account of consolidation. An employee told TOI that Yahoo!'s HotJobs division has almost wound up, with some employees being redeployed and others asked to go. The company is said to be making efforts to support impacted employees with severance packages and outbound placement services. A spokesperson of the company said the Indian operations was notified about the layoffs on Tuesday and the process was completed on Wednesday. Globally, Yahoo is laying off about 1,500 employees, about 10% of its workforce, according to a report by news agency Reuters. This follows the announcement in October that layoffs would occur by year's end, the agency said. Reuters said that the layoffs will hit hardest in the labour-intensive areas of human resources and finance. Yahoo!'s found the going tough against the likes of Google. In a move that is said to be unrelated to the layoffs, Yahoo! India's chief information officer Viswanathan Krishnamurthi has quit the company.

HSBC to cut 500 jobs, Credit Suisse to lay off 650

London Amid the ongoing economic crisis, the banking sector continues to be hit by mass layoffs with financial service major Credit Suisse and HSBC announcing additional 1,150 job cuts, a media report says.   According to the Financial Times, Credit Suisse will be trimming its workforce by 10 per cent leading to job loss for 650 employees, while HSBC said it was slashing 500 jobs. Credit Suisse has been impacted by the loan writedowns, which has led to two quarters of losses for Switzerland's second-largest bank this year, the report said. A majority of the jobs at Credit Suisse would be cut in the investment banking and the support functions segment.   The report quoted Credit Suisse as saying that it was reacting to market conditions and projected staffing levels required to meet client needs. The UK's largest bank, HSBC, said it was planning to reduce its UK workforce by more than five per cent at its headquarters in Canary Wharf and other locations, to reduce duplication of work, FT said.   HSBC, which employs about 8,000 people at its headquarters, said that it would shed 500 employees of its head office in areas including finance and legal services, the report added. However, the union has seen no business rationale for these job cuts and believes that HSBC is using the economic downturn an excuse to reduce employment. Earlier, HSBC said that it would cut 500 jobs in Asia as part of a shake-up of its global banking and markets division.   Besides, Citigroup had also announced it was shedding 52,000 staff worldwide, while Royal Bank of Scotland plans to cut about 3,000 jobs in its investment banking division.

Bridgestone may cut jobs at US plant

TOKYO - Japan's Bridgestone said yesterday it may stop producing tires for passenger cars and light trucks at a plant in the United States next year with the loss of up to 500 jobs. As a first step, the group said its U.S. subsidiary Bridgestone Firestone North American Tire would lay off at least 158 employees on December 21 at the plant in LaVergne, Tennessee.

Delta to cut capacity, may cut jobs

Delta Air Lines Inc. will trim its capacity by up to 8 percent in 2009 and suggested more jobs cuts are on the way, driven by the global economic slowdown and softening traffic. The Atlanta-based airline revealed the cuts in a memo to its 75,000 employees from Chief Executive Officer Richard Anderson and President Edward Bastian. The memo noted domestic capacity would shrink up to 10 percent while international capacity will fall by as much as 5 percent. The declines include the effect of capacity cuts made this year. Executives also said in the memo that Delta (NYSE: DAL) might soon cut more jobs, noting the airline is "analyzing the impact on staffing as it pertains to these capacity reductions and, as in the past, we will offer voluntary programs to adjust staffing needs." Delta in the spring identified about 700 managerial and administrative jobs for elimination and offered buyouts to non-pilot employees in an effort to trim 2,000 jobs, about 3 percent of its work force at the time. The same month that the company offered up the buyouts, it struck a deal to buy Eagan, Minn.-based Northwest Airlines Corp., a transaction that closed in late October. Delta executives said the company is realizing "significant benefits" from the deal despite the recession, including moves to connect networks and expand its international presence. "We will remain focused on, and continue to adapt to, the rapidly changing global economy to better align supply with demand," Anderson and Bastian wrote. Delta is the largest carrier flying out of Dayton International Airport.