Still waiting. Today had the granddaddy of them all, though. Microsoft, who managed to avoid layoffs when the dot-com bubble popped, announced 5,000 job cuts. 1,400 people were notified today. That was the reason for the announcement before, instead of after, the bell. Apparently HR coordinated the termination notices with the market announcement.
Some other headlines:
TomTom to Eliminate 115 Jobs Globally to Lower Costs — 7% of their workforce.
Toyota May Cut More Than 1,000 Jobs as Sales Fall, Nikkei Says — speculation about a company that tries hard to avoid letting workers go. No guess for how many of those are in the US vs. elsewhere.
Sony May Stop Output at 1 Japan TV Plant to Cut Costs — That’s roughly 2000 Japanese manufacturing jobs.
As I mentioned earlier, the Microsoft news hit the market hard.
In semi-related news, Yahoo’s new CEO imposes salary freeze. Imagine how much worse the Microsoft news would have been if they had over-payed for Yahoo.
I have to say, MSFT is looking a little cheap to me. I’m tempted.
