News
Ballmer: Let’s Cut Costs, Raise Salaries
- By Scott Bekker
- 12/19/2000
Today’s
Wall Street Journal
reports that a company-wide memo to employees from
Microsoft Corp. president and CEO Steve
Ballmer requests that executives begin implementing cost-cutting measures while
at the same time calls for raises in base salary for key employees in an
attempt at better retention rates.
The memo was distributed on Thursday, the same day Microsoft
announced it fail to meet revenue and profit predictions for its second
quarter.
The Journal reports that in the memo, Ballmer wrote, “We
all have a big incentive as shareholders to reignite the kind of cost-conscious
culture that marked Microsoft’s earlier years.”
In the memo, Ballmer acknowledged that the recent
precipitous drop in Microsoft’s stock price makes “employees, new and old, more
sensitive to cash compensation.” The Journal reports that to help the company
recruit and retain top talent, Ballmer said Microsoft will “invest
significantly” in base-salary raises for some high performing employees.
The seven business priorities laid out in the memo are
Windows operating systems; productivity software, such as Office; enterprise
sever products and tools; the Microsoft Network; applications for small
businesses; products for non-PC devices; and the .NET initiative. According to
the Journal, Ballmer emphasized the importance of both Whistler and
Office 10 in the memo, as well as disclosing a new version of SQL Server,
code-named “Yukon.” – Isaac Slepner
About the Author
Scott Bekker is editor in chief of Redmond Channel Partner magazine.