Take the Money and Go? Microsoft's 60,000 Buyouts

Take It or Stay?

Take it or stay? Four questions

1. What happens if you say no?If they cut more later, is your job on the safe side or the expensive side?
2. How many months does the check buy?The check divided by what you spend a month.
3. What about health insurance?Know what you're doing on day one.
4. What would you do with the time?The same job somewhere else, or something of your own?

Microsoft: 60,000 Offered the Exit

• Who: staff in the US, UK, Canada and India, up to just below vice president. Xbox, Windows, Copilot and Finance are in. Data centers, sales and marketing are out.
• The deal: about the same as Microsoft's normal severance: pay based on years served, stock, health care and career help.
• The clock: decide in early December, gone December 31.
• Round two: this spring Microsoft offered early retirement to about 8,750 people. More than 30% took it. That deal was richer than this one.
• Why: cut costs and put more money into AI.
• Two days later: Microsoft reported $92.3 billion in revenue for the quarter, up 19%, and $36.6 billion in profit, up 32%.
• Who runs it: CEO Satya Nadella, born in Hyderabad, India, CEO since 2014. Fiscal 2026 pay: $90.6 million, more than 400 times the median employee's $215,057. The buyouts stop below the executive level.
• The stock: in the fiscal year that ended in June, $100 in Microsoft stock fell from $190 to $143 in the company's own chart, while its peer group rose from $184 to $260.
• H-1B visas: 6,258 approvals in fiscal 2025, third behind Amazon and Meta; about 2 in 3 went to people already working there. On Oct. 8 the administration suspended Microsoft from PERM, the green card sponsorship program, and Vice President Vance said it replaced laid-off workers with foreign hires.

If you own a business: thousands of experienced people are about to have a check and a free calendar. Some will become your competitors. Some could be your best hires or partners.

Sources: CNBC · TechCrunch · KUOW · Microsoft 2026 proxy (SEC) · CNBC (H-1B data) · Nadella bio · Microsoft Q1 results

It's Not Just Microsoft

• American Express: cutting 5% of its workforce, partly to "prepare for AI," its CFO says.
• Barclays: about 5,000 jobs. eBay: about 1,000 (9%), its second round this year.
• Electronic Arts: closing BioWare after 30 years, about 400 jobs cut, the next Mass Effect cancelled. Two months after a $55 billion buyout led by Saudi Arabia's fund.
• Volkswagen: doubling its job cuts to 100,000 worldwide, while its Audi brand plans a $4 billion plant in Macon, Georgia with 4,500 jobs. Audi says tariffs drove it. The board decides next month.

If you own a business: a new plant needs builders, suppliers, trucks, food and housing around it. That's where small businesses start.

Sources: CNBC · CNBC · Newsweek · Insurance Journal (Bloomberg) · Challenger, Gray & Christmas

Where the Money Is Going

Anthropic files for the biggest IPO ever

• The maker of Claude filed on Oct. 26 to list on Nasdaq. It could be the largest IPO in history.
• It lost over $80 billion in the first half of the year while revenue grew 14-fold. Close to half its revenue runs through the Microsoft, Amazon and Google clouds.
• If it stumbles, investor Jai Das told CNBC, "it'll be a little bit of a house of cards."

The Fed held rates, and two wanted a hike

• On Wednesday the Fed kept rates at 3.75% to 4%, where they have been since September's hike. The vote was 10 to 2.
• Governor Lisa Cook and Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack dissented. Both wanted another quarter-point increase.
• The Fed said inflation "remains elevated." It went from 3.4% in August to 3.7% in September.

If you own a business: the companies cutting people are spending billions on AI, much of it borrowed. Don't plan on cheaper loans this year.

Sources: CNBC · The Hill · CNBC (Fed decision)

Looking Rich vs. Being Rich

• About 5.5% of auto loan dollars are 90 days or more behind.
• More than 1 in 4 new-car buyers signs for 7 years or longer. Average interest over the loan: $9,938, a record.
• Repossessions hit about 1.73 million in 2024, the most since 2009.

If you own a business: your first work truck should make you money, not make you look like money.

Sources: Fortune (Edmunds) · New York Fed · University of Cincinnati (Cox Automotive)

Took the Buyout? Start Here

1. Count your runwaySeverance divided by what you spend a month. That's how long you have to get paying customers.
2. Handle health insurance firstLosing job-based coverage opens a 60-day window to sign up on the Marketplace.
3. Don't buy the truckNo $787 payment before your first paying customer.
4. Get your first clientsList everyone you know. Call them. Ask, "Who do you know that needs this?"
5. Set it up rightGet your EIN from the IRS. It's free. Get business insurance before your first job, not after.

Thinking about it? Drop your business idea in the chat.

Sources: HealthCare.gov · IRS · SBA

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