Microsoft Releases Earnings Early: Quarterly Profits Drop, Confirms Job Cuts

January 27, 2009 by admin
Filed under Search Engines

Microsoft surprised Wall Street by announcing their earnings early today. They were scheduled to announced their earnings at 5:30pm EST/2:30pm PST, after the closing bell.

Unfortunately, they had negative news to report. Their quarterly profits were down (despite a slight increase in revenue), which sent the stock down by 7% in early trading.

As a result, Microsoft will be laying off 5,000 people. 1,400 will get the pink slips today. Rumors and reports of Microsoft layoffs have been swirling for weeks.

“While we are not immune to the effects of the economy, I am confident in the strength of our product portfolio and soundness of our approach,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer at Microsoft. “We will continue to manage expenses and invest in long-term opportunities to deliver value to customers and shareholders, and we will emerge an even stronger industry leader than we are today.”