Certifiable

Blog archive

Microsoft Legal Eagles Bit By Recession Bug

A company as big as Microsoft needs powerful and proactive legal counsel (see vs. Uniloc, vs. EU, or vs. i4i for some of the more recent high-profile court drama). But the recession (there's that word again) had the company cross examining its legal bills. The result: hefty cuts to the tune of about $135 million and negotiations to reduce costs associated with outsourced counsel, according to this blog piece in Legal Week. That's more than half a billion if you take into account the Uniloc fine. There's no indication if the 450 lawyers who were axed are part of the 5K that Microsoft was going to let go, but I'm guessing it is.

Posted by Michael Domingo on 10/09/2009 at 3:50 PM


Reader Comments:

Sat, Oct 10, 2009 The Mad Hatter http"//crankyoldnutcase.blogspot.com

If they are outside lawyers, then no, they aren't part of the 10,000 (there were two layoff cycles, the first was 5000, and the second was never officially announced, another 5000 is my guess). This still doesn't help Microsoft's bottom line. They are bleeding heavily in several areas, and rather than dump those non-performing assets they pull a general layoff. They need to dump XBox, Zune (essentially the whole consumer division), Windows Mobile, Hotmail (or whatever it's called today), Search, and a bunch of other things that are not profitable, and have never been profitable, and concentrate on their core assets. If they don't, they'll end up doing a GM, going cap in hand to Washington for bailout money, and they probably won't get it because there won't be any left by then.

Add Your Comment Now:

Your Name:(optional)
Your Email:(optional)
Your Location:(optional)
Comment:
Please type the letters/numbers you see above