EUR/USD 1.17746
-0.106%
Gold 4799.08
-0.447%
Oil 86.081
0.608%
USD/JPY 158.968
0.093%
GBP/USD 1.35169
-0.121%
GBP/JPY 214.882
-0.012%
Browse More
  • English
  • 简体中文
  • 繁體中文
  • Tiếng Việt
  • ไทย
  • Indonesia
Subscribe
Real-time News
Irans Foreign Ministry: The United States attacked an Iranian merchant ship and demanded that the US release all crew members.On April 21st, Futures News reported that as of April 20th, the mainstream closing price of benzene in East China was 8700 yuan/ton, a decrease of 160 yuan/ton from the previous trading day. Lower crude oil prices, coupled with lower international prices and better-than-expected March import figures, dampened market enthusiasm for price increases, leading to a lower price center. As prices fell to around 8650 yuan/ton, market buying interest picked up again. Looking ahead, as benzene prices rise, downstream price transmission resistance is increasing, but the lower prices are still expected to boost market buying interest, with downstream factories continuing to buy on dips. Renewed tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and a strong rebound in European and American crude oil futures suggest that market prices will remain relatively strong in the short term.On April 21, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to introduce the development of industry and information technology in the first quarter of 2026. Xie Cun, spokesperson of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Director of the Information and Communications Development Department, said that in the next step, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will focus on creating an upgraded version of 5G+Industrial Internet, strengthen factor guarantees, accelerate the introduction of implementation opinions on promoting the high-quality development of industrial internet, coordinate the construction of network identification, platform data security and other projects, and strive to improve the development of the five major systems of policy, infrastructure, technology, application and ecosystem.On April 21, Al Jazeera reported that former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary for Arabian Peninsula Affairs Daniel Benaim stated in an interview: "The stepping stone to this war, the opportunity when the U.S. could have declared victory directly, may have appeared long ago, but we didnt seize it. We are now embroiled in an extremely complex military engagement and an extremely complex diplomatic game with Iran. Every objective set by the U.S. when launching the war against Iran has fallen far short of expectations. We talked about containing Irans nuclear program authoritatively for a long time. Certainly, some of these objectives could have been achieved without resorting to war."On April 21, Tao Qing, spokesperson for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and Director of the Bureau of Operation Monitoring and Coordination, stated that the next step will be to implement the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, focusing on three key tasks: First, top-level design. Accelerate the formulation of the "15th Five-Year Plan" for intelligent connected new energy vehicles, and study and issue guiding opinions on accelerating the innovative development of intelligent equipment. Second, stable operation. Implement the new round of work plans for stabilizing growth in industries such as machinery, automobiles, and power equipment, continuously promote equipment upgrades and vehicle trade-ins, and regulate industrial competition order with a persistent and meticulous approach. Third, focused efforts on key breakthroughs. Continue to implement the high-quality development action plan for key industrial chains in the equipment manufacturing industry, and strengthen the research and development of landmark products and the promotion and application of research results.

Microsoft Will Lay off 10,000 Workers, Adding to IT's Excess of Layoffs

Haiden Holmes

Jan 19, 2023 10:59

3.png


Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ:MSFT) stated on Wednesday that it will remove 10,000 employees and take a $1.2 billion loss against profits as cloud-computing clients rethink spending and the business prepares for a potential recession.


The layoffs are in addition to the tens of thousands that have been reported over the past few months in the IT industry, which has retreated after a period of tremendous expansion during the epidemic.


The announcement comes as the software company plans to raise expenditure on generative artificial intelligence, the emerging bright spot in the industry.


CEO Satya Nadella sought to address the varied outlooks for several business divisions in an internal message to staff.


Customers wished to "optimize their digital expenditures to do more with less" and "exercise prudence since certain sections of the world are experiencing a recession and others are expecting one," he stated. Simultaneously, AI advancements are spawning the next major wave of computing.


The layoffs, which will affect fewer than 5 percent of Microsoft's staff, will be completed by the end of March, with notification commencing on Wednesday.


Microsoft would continue to employ in "key areas," he said. AI is likely one of these disciplines. This week, Nadella introduced AI to a gathering of world leaders in Davos, Switzerland, stating that the technology will alter Microsoft's products and have a global influence.


Microsoft has contemplated raising its $1 billion bet in OpenAI, the firm behind the ChatGPT craze in Silicon Valley, which Microsoft will shortly offer as a cloud service.


The closing price for shares of the Redmond, Washington-based corporation decreased by 2% on Wednesday.


Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), a rival in the retail and cloud-computing industries, began notifying its own 18,000 employees of layoffs on Wednesday.


Amazon indicated in an internal message that impacted employees in the United States, Canada, and Costa Rica will be informed by day's end. The Chinese staff will be notified following the Chinese New Year.


Meta Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:META), the parent company of Facebook, has announced the termination of 11,000 employees, while Salesforce (NYSE:CRM) Inc has announced the removal of 10% of its 80,000-person staff.


More than 97,000 job cutbacks were reported in the IT business in 2022, the highest since 131,000 layoffs were revealed in 2002, according to the outplacement agency Challenger, Gray & Christmas.


"We haven't seen this amount of activity since the dot-com disaster," said Andrew Challenger, the company's senior vice president.


According to an update on the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) page for Washington State, Microsoft will lay off 878 full-time employees at its Redmond headquarters. The legislation requires the majority of U.S. firms to report mass layoffs impacting 50 or more employees at a single site.

CLOUD GROWTH DECLINING

According to some experts, Microsoft's billion-dollar penalty would cut the company's second fiscal quarter profit by 12 cents per share and may have consequences outside the technology sector.


Brian Frank, a portfolio manager at Frank Funds who has owned Microsoft shares periodically over the past many years, stated, "This is one of the marquee growth firms with a very distinct user base indicating that economic conditions may not be as favorable as we anticipated."


According to Nadella, the charge is the result of severance fees, as well as changes to Microsoft's hardware lineup and lease consolidation to create more dense workplaces.


Microsoft declined to comment on the hardware modifications or whether any product lines will be discontinued.


In recent years, Microsoft's cloud sales have surged due to an increase in corporate demand for online data hosting and cloud computing. However, growth dropped to 35% in the first quarter of fiscal year 2023, and the business forecasts further slowing. It was reported in July of last year that a few posts had been cut.

Suggestion