Fudzilla is reporting that Microsoft is preparing to lay off 17% of its staff by 15th January.

Microsoft currently employs just over 90,000 people across the world and according to an internal source that spoke to Fudzilla, 15,000 of those are expected to be giving marching orders come January 15th. If you do the math that's almost 17 percent of Microsoft's total work force, a pretty big dent.

According to the site, Microsoft's MSN division may be hit the worst along with Microsoft EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa). Could this be paving the way for another Yahoo bid to fill the failing MSN outfit?

Posted: Jan 02, 2009 1:19 am