More layoffs if needed, warns Microsoft CEO

If economy dramatically worsens well look at things again: Ballmer

“Presuming the economy hopefully stays as bad as it is and doesn’t get dramatically worse, we will finish our plan, but if it gets dramatically worse again, we will look at things again,” Microsoft Corporation Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer told reporters here.
The Redmond-based company had in January announced that it would axe 5,000 jobs globally amid the ongoing slowdown.
Incidentally, on Monday it announced slashing one per cent of its 5,500-strong Indian workforce, amounting to 55 layoffs, in a bid to realign its business in the country.
It added that it would continue to hire and create employment opportunities in line with the recovery and growth of the Indian economy. “We had said that we would lay-off about 5,000 people. We are still filling other jobs. We are mostly through that process globally and there is still some work to do,” Ballmer said.
“There are areas where we are continuing to add people. As I said, these are global additions, so it is a little hard to separate our work globally from our work in India,” the Microsoft Chief Executive Officer added.  Ballmer said Microsoft is the second largest foreign IT employer in India and he doesn’t see a change in that. In the second round of job cuts effected on May 5, the software major said it would lay off 3,000 employees. In January, Microsoft had laid off 1,350-1,400 people, largely in the United States. The Bill Gates-led firm said it would make strategic investments, which are best suited to the current economic environment.

PC market growth

Ballmer said he expects growth in the global PC (personal computers) market to be tough given the current downturn, but thinks India would certainly clock better growth in the segment.
“We hope to see growth in the global PC market, although it could be a little tough. But we see growth in the personal computer market here in India,” he said. Ballmersaid the importance is cyber security is accelerating and there is a need to invest in the area to counter the changing nature of cyber attacks. “The nature of cyber attacks is changing. Instead of, what I call, visible public mischief, we are now getting into private espionage, money theft, identity theft and so on,” Ballmer pointed out. “So the need to invest on our part and the part of the government and the other private sector customers in appropriate techniques to defend, to monitor, to track, to remediate and to prosecute the perpetrators, in the case of the government, is arising,” he added.



‘SAP buy talks just rumours’
Mumbai, Reuters: Microsoft Corp Chief Executive Steve Ballmer, on Tuesday, said speculation the company may buy German software firm SAP was a ‘random rumor.’
“I have nothing to say about rumors of acquisitions ... positively or negatively,” he told reporters in Mumbai, when asked about an acquisition of SAP. “It strikes me as a random rumor.”
Microsoft, the world’s top software firm, on Monday sold a $3.75 billion debt issue, sparking talk that it could be readying a bid for the German firm.
SAP co-Chief Executive Leo Apothekar said on Monday he believed the business software maker should stay independent, following the fresh speculation in European markets that Microsoft could bid for it.
Rumours have periodically surfaced that either IBM or Microsoft might acquire the German firm.