It’s official today. I just heard on NPR Microsoft will lay off 1400 people today and 5000 over the next 18 months. It was not clear whether the 1400 was part of the 5000 in this first news report. Marketing, sales, IT, and R & D seem to be the areas experiencing cuts.
Earlier in the week, the news and blogs were abuzz with Microsoft’s changing plans for expansion of its Redmond campuses.
The Seattle Times, The Seattle PI, and the computer world blog each had articles discussing the hold on expansion on Redmond campuses.
One of the newest campuses, across highway 520 from the main campus in Redmond, is still under construction. This photo is from a few months back as construction is further along.
Here’s an explanation of the expected changes in our next of the woods in Redmond from Joseph Tartakoff of the Seattle PI:
“Among the leases Microsoft will not renew are two buildings on its Redmond Millennium campus, its Willows facility and its space at 505 Union Station near Qwest Field.
Construction of RedWest South on land Microsoft bought from Nintendo has been postponed until June 2014. Microsoft had asked the city of Redmond in November 2008 for preapproval of a plan to build two office buildings and an underground parking garage for 1,900 cars there.
Microsoft also will delay construction of Building 83 in Redmond until 2013. The company had broken ground on the facility at 4729 154th Place N.E. in the fall. Nearby, a planned Building 81 won’t be built until 2014.”
The real estate data discussed in this blog is for the neighborhoods to the north and go to the east around the main Microsoft campus.
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West Redmond Real Estate Buzz
The news and blogosphere were abuzz with stories about Microsoft today. Here’s some links to a few of the stories:
http://www.techflash.com/Microsoft_cuts_ripple_through_commercial_real_estate_market38167899.html
Computer world had an excellent blog post, summarizing many of the Microsoft story’s components. In reality, 5000 people may be laid off, many of them in Redmond, but Microsoft is still hiring for strategic positions. (I have a friend interviewing with them at this very time). So the company may hire 2000-3000 while letting 5000 people go.
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9126598&intsrc=hm_ts_head
The tech flash summary:
http://www.techflash.com/How_Microsoft_is_cutting_back38139264.html
Bloomberg News weighs in:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=a5MJCOXYUYfA&refer=us
The story focuses on the effect on the hyper-local economy of Redmond.
[...] In my two previous posts on this blog, I talked about the changes happening with Microsoft. On one…. I will certainly keep the neighborhood up to date via this blog with changes as I hear about them. If you know of any information I should be letting people know, please feel free to chime in. ▶ Comment /* 0) { jQuery(‘#comments’).show(”, change_location()); jQuery(‘#showcomments a .closed’).css(‘display’, ‘none’); jQuery(‘#showcomments a .open’).css(‘display’, ‘inline’); return true; } else { jQuery(‘#comments’).hide(”); jQuery(‘#showcomments a .closed’).css(‘display’, ‘inline’); jQuery(‘#showcomments a .open’).css(‘display’, ‘none’); return false; } } jQuery(‘#showcomments a’).click(function(){ if(jQuery(‘#comments’).css(‘display’) == ‘none’) { self.location.href = ‘#comments’; check_location(); } else { check_location(‘hide’); } }); function change_location() { self.location.href = ‘#comments’; } }); /* ]]> */ Click here to cancel reply. [...]