Microsoft: "Quarterly net income of $4.17 billion"
That's only for ONE QUARTER, folks!!!
"About 5,000 to lose jobs at Microsoft" by Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff | January 23, 2009
Stung by a dramatic slowdown in personal computer sales, software titan Microsoft Corp. is laying off up to 5,000 workers worldwide over the next 18 months, including 1,400 who lost their jobs yesterday.
They didn't "lose" their jobs -- they were taken from them.
None of Microsoft's workers in Massachusetts were affected by yesterday's cuts, but they may not be so lucky as the layoffs continue. The job losses will affect workers in a variety of departments, including research and development, sales, marketing, finance, and human resources. But Microsoft plans to keep hiring workers in areas where business is still growing, such as Internet search service....
Al Gillen, who tracks the operating system market for IDC Corp. in Framingham, said.... "Microsoft probably had a lot of deadwood it can afford to cut."
Microsoft said that revenue for the second quarter ending Dec. 31 was $16.63 billion, an increase of 2 percent from the previous year, but about $1 billion less than Microsoft had forecast in October. Quarterly net income of $4.17 billion was 11 percent lower than last year....
Microsoft reported a smidgen of good news - the surging popularity of its Xbox 360 gaming console, which sold a record 6 million units during the quarter, led to a 3 percent revenue increase for the company's entertainment division.
That's why I have litttle hope for AmeriKa: all the snot noses playing video games instead of worrying about the real world.
Update: Microsoft to axe 5,000, no job cuts in India
Keep gaming, kiddo!
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GE: "GE's earnings totaled $3.65 billion.... for the three months ended Dec. 31"
WASHINGTON - In a discouraging report for the American economy, General Electric Co. posted a 46 percent drop in fourth-quarter earnings yesterday and warned of a tough environment this year as it struggles with its ailing finance business.
They make it sound like they are one step from the poor house!
The results cap a difficult 2008 for one of the world's largest industrial companies and point to risks ahead. GE's businesses touch on most sectors of an economy mired in a recession, from medical equipment and real estate to TV stations. And its longtime profit engine, GE Capital, has seen profits sapped as businesses and consumers limit borrowing or default....
Notice how they left the MILITARY COMPONENT OUT (probably because they are still making profit)?!
After paying preferred dividends, GE's earnings totaled $3.65 billion, or 35 cents per share for the three months ended Dec. 31, down from $6.7 billion, or 66 cents per share, a year earlier. Those results included $1.5 billion in charges from a restructuring of GE Capital and increased reserves. But they also included a significant tax boost of $1.38 billion....
TAX BOOST? They got a TAX BOOST? At WHOSE EXPENSE?
GE, which makes everything from turbines to light bulbs.... For all of 2008, GE earned $17.3 billion, or $1.72 per share, down 22 percent from a year earlier.
But it STILL AIN'T ENOUGH!!! In fact, the paper is crying poverty for them!
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