Microsoft is cutting up to 5,000 jobs in the next 18 months starting with 1,400 today. Cuts will happen in R&D, marketing, sales, finance, legal, HR, and IT – presumably none of the real revenue bringers.
This follows predictions that Microsoft would loose 6,000 to 8,000 jobs. This is Microsoft’s first company-wide layoff in its three decade history.
“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,” CEO Steve Ballmer said in a statement. “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.”
Let’s pour a little out for all our homies at Microsoft and hope things get better.

Win a Fujifilm FinePix F200EXR from pingg by taking a picture of Brooklyn!
adidas miCoach Pacer tracks your heart rate, helps you get fit at your own speed
Don’t be surprised if Amazon has to raise the price of Kindle books
Panasonic ready to pump $1.1 billion into solar energy business