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Contract worker starts campaign against Microsoft cutbacks
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| Microsoft may have just accomplished what the WashTech labor union tried to
| do for years -- motivating its workers to band together and fight for their
| common interests. At least, that's the aim of a new site called
| MSRateCuts.org, which objects to the pay cuts expected to result from
| Microsoft's decision to reduce the rate it pays the agencies that provide
| many of its temporary workers.
`----
http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Contract_worker_starts_campaign_against_Microsoft_cutbacks_40402622.html
Employee organizes against Microsoft temp pay cuts
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/162954.asp?source=rss
Microsoft Cuts Contractor Pay
http://www.pcworld.com/article/160319/microsoft_cuts_contractor_pay.html?tk=rss_news
Recent:
Microsoft slashes rates for temp workers, blaming bad economy
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| Microsoft, citing the "realities of a deteriorating economy," will reduce by
| 10 percent the amount it pays employment agencies for many of its temporary
| workers -- and cut by 15 percent the target billing rate for future temporary
| work.
`----
http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Microsoft_slashes_rates_for_temp_workers_blaming_bad_economy_40321577.html
Microsoft reaffirms grim outlook for year
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| Shares of Microsoft sank 58 cents, or 3.4 percent, to $16.63 in midday
| trading amid a broader market sell-off.
`----
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008780059_apmicrosoftanalystmeeting.html?syndication=rss
Bob the Impaler
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| Next let’s consider how big a layoff this really is – 1400 people right away
| and up to 5000 by sometime in 2010. Microsoft has, depending on how you
| count it, about 100,000 employees. If the average time in service is 10
| years that implies that 10 percent of the Microsoft workforce leaves every
| year, which feels about right. That’s 10,000 folks leaving of their own
| accord EVERY YEAR. So what does this layoff mean, anyway? “Over the next
| two years we’ll be eliminating 5000 positions.” It means nothing.
|
| [...]
|
| So unlike every other public company, Microsoft traditionally manages its
| earnings not by cutting expenses but by increasing spending. It’s a legacy
| technique invented years ago by legendary CFO Frank Gaudette and embraced by
| Bill Gates and Jon Shirley because it accomplished the task of meeting Wall
| Street expectations, allowed the company to hide spectacular true profit
| margins, while still generally keeping anti-trust officials off Microsoft’s
| back.
|
| [...]
|
| Instead of 5000 positions, the company should drop 50,000. It should decide
| what businesses it is in and close or sell the rest. It should be a lot
| better than it is at running its true core – the muscle that’s been hiding
| beneath all that fat.
`----
http://www.cringely.com/2009/01/bob-the-impaler/
Microsoft should have made deeper cuts, analysts contend
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| The unprecedented layoffs and other cutbacks announced yesterday by Microsoft
| haven't appeased Wall Street. Microsoft shares are down more than 6 percent
| since the news came out, and some analysts assert that the company needed to
| go much further.
`----
http://www.techflash.com/microsoft/Microsoft_should_have_made_deeper_cuts_analysts_contend38239219.html
Related:
Microsoft's Accounting Under Scrutiny
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| The company has still not made enough information public to provide analysts
| with detailed information on the profitability of its MSN Internet business,
| Mr. Galvin said, adding, ''There's still room for them to obfuscate.''
`----
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E1DC173DF932A35754C0A96F958260
Microsoft - Undeserving of Libertarian Praise
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| One strategy that Microsoft has employed in the past is paying for the
| silence of people and companies. Charles Pancerzewski, formerly Microsoft's
| chief auditor, became aware of Microsoft's practice of carrying earnings from
| one accounting period into another, known as "managing earnings". This
| practice smoothes reported revenue streams, increases share value, and
| misleads employees and shareholders. In addition to being unethical, it's
| also illegal under U.S. Securities Law and violates Generally Accepted
| Accounting Practices (Fink). Mr. Pancerzewski claims he was forced to retire,
| for raising the issue of deferred earnings with Microsoft executives, thereby
| making plausible deniability more difficult for said executives. He has since
| sued Microsoft, who responded by settling out of court, but also sealing the
| records to prevent public disclosure (Fink).
`----
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/8/20/11034/3908
Microsoft Agrees To Refrain From Accounting Violations in SEC Settlement
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| Microsoft has agreed to refrain from accounting violations to settle federal
| regulators' allegations that it misrepresented its financial performance, the
| government announced Monday.
|
| Under a settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the software
| giant neither admitted to nor denied wrongdoing. No fine was imposed.
|
| The SEC alleged that Microsoft's accounting practices from July 1994 through
| June 1998 caused its income to be substantially misstated.
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http://www.crn.com/it-channel/18819490
"Microsoft Tax," MSN Enters the Black Hole, New Names for NT
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| The lawsuit, filed last year by Mukilteo City Councilman Charles
| Pancerzewski, alleges that he was forced to resign as Microsoft's general
| auditor in January 1996 after working for the company's internal auditing
| department for more than four years. The suit claims that a "significantly
| younger man" with little auditing experience was picked to replace
| Pancerzewski, who was finally forced out because he discovered Microsoft
| might have been violating government regulations. Once Pancerzewski left the
| company he was replaced by the younger man, who his attorneys believe
| was "less prone to raise issues of possible legal improprieties which could
| threaten or embarrass Microsoft or its management.
`----
http://www.msboycott.com/news/98_06_22.shtml
SEC Investigating Microsoft Practices -- Earnings Manipulated, Former Employee
Contends
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| "The CFO to whom Charlie was reporting his concerns about illegality was the
| biggest advocate for the very illegality that was going on," Vial argued in
| court a year ago.
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http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19990701&slug=2969514
Microfraud?
,----[ Quote ]
| THE ALLEGATIONS WERE shocking: For years, Microsoft has systematically
| distorted its profit figures in an effort to consistently beat Wall Street
| expectations and keep its stock price steadily rising. The false reports
| would violate SEC regulations, and amount to outright fraud.
|
| More shocking was the source of the allegations: Microsoft's chief of
| internal audits, Charlie Pancerzewski, who reported directly to the company's
| chief financial officer.
|
| Most shocking of all was what happened to Pancerzewski when he reported the
| suspicious bookkeeping to his supervisors, Microsoft CFO Mike Brown and chief
| operating officer Bob Herbold, in the spring of 1995. Soon afterward,
| Pancerzewski—who for nearly five years had received stellar performance
| evaluations—received his first-ever unsatisfactory one, and was eventually
| forced to resign.
|
| Two months ago, Microsoft quietly settled a lawsuit containing these
| allegations, filed in 1997 by Pancerzewski under the Whistleblowers
| Protection Act. The auditor claimed he was wrongfully terminated after
| telling his supervisors that Microsoft might be breaking securities and tax
| laws. The lawsuit made its tortuous way through several rounds of pretrial
| motions until last fall, when US District Judge Carolyn Dimmick denied
| Microsoft's final plea for summary judgment, finding credible evidence that
| Microsoft may have violated SEC rules, as Pancerzewski alleged. Shortly
| thereafter, Microsoft and Pancerzewski settled out of court. Terms of the
| agreement were sealed, but one source who claims familiarity with the case
| says that Microsoft paid Pancerzewski $4 million.
`----
http://web.archive.org/web/20070308032343rn_2/www.seattleweekly.com/1999-01-06/news/microfraud.php
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