Microsoft to Delete 5,000 Jobs

Oy. Citing an economic downturn, Microsoft plans on pruning up to 5,000 jobs in the next year and a half, or 5.5% of its global workforce. They will 'cleanse' over 1,400 gigs immediately, with the rest of the cuts coming by June 2010. This is the company first-ever mass job cut. And who's the blame? Bill Gates. According to Valleywag, "The problem with Microsoft is its financial performance is all too predictable. It has grown so large, its products so woven into the modern way of business, that its sales wax and wane with the economy; Microsoft no longer controls its own destiny, as its army of libertarian-minded geeks would prefer." Snap.