Microsoft hosted Sting concert the night before announcing layoffs
Microsoft is under fire for hosting ‘intimate’ Sting concert for 50 execs at Davos – the night before announcing it would slash 10,000 jobs
- Fifty Microsoft executives enjoyed a private Sting concert at a Davos ski resort the night before the company announced it would lay off 10,000 employees
- Employees said the Sting concert was a bad look for the company, as performances by the iconic artist are upward of $500,000
- Microsoft is among the growing list of tech companies, including Amazon and Meta, and Twitter which are facing massive layoffs
Microsoft has come under fire for hosting an ‘intimate’ Sting concert for executives in Switzerland the night before announcing it would lay off 10,000 employees.
Fifty executives all crowded into a venue to listen to Sting, whose legal name is Gordon Matthew Thomas Sumner, 71, perform at a Davos ski resort on Tuesday evening, according to the Wall Street Journal. The executives were in Davos for the World Economic Forum – a meeting where executives and millionaires meet yearly.
Employees told the Wall Street Journal that the Sting concert was a bad look for the company, as performances by the iconic artist are upward of $500,000, according to booking agency AAE Music. It is unclear if Sting was paid for the performance.
The following morning, the company announced it would be slashing 10,000 jobs – roughly five percent of its workforce – after suffering from ‘macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.’
It marks the largest layoffs at Microsoft since 2014. The company also laid off around 1,000 workers last year. Other tech companies are also facing layoffs, such as Amazon and Twitter.
Some workers were told by the end of the day on Wednesday that they lost their jobs, while others would find out later. Downsizing will be done by the end of the third quarter in 2023.
Fifty Microsoft executives enjoyed a private Sting (pictured) concert at a Davos, Switzerland, ski resort the night before the company announced it would lay off 10,000 employees. Employees said the Sting concert was a bad look for the company, as performances by the iconic artist are upward of $500,000
Microsoft executives were in Switzerland for the annual World Economic Forum. The new layoffs mark the largest layoffs at Microsoft since 2014. The company also laid offed around 1,000 workers last year as well
The invitation-only event in Switzerland had a theme of sustainability, which falls into Sting’s environmental work as he is the founder of the Rainforest Fund, which seeks to protect rainforests and the indigenous people who live in them. He also supports human rights organizations and campaigns.
Sting has been doing a lot of performances lately, including for his My Songs Tours, which runs from September 2021 to December 2023. He also recently made an appearance on the popular Hulu show Only Murders in the Building, starring Selena Gomez.
On top of that, he sold his song catalog for an estimated $300million, according to The New York Times.
In additional, Davos had around 1,700 private jets flying into the conference to discuss climate change and global warming. It is unclear if Sting or Microsoft were among them.
Microsoft isn’t the only tech company hurting as the globe faces economic downturns following the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, Amazon announced plans to layoff 18,000 employees and Salesforce estimated it would layoff 10 percent. Goldman Sachs also began letting more than 3,000 go, just ahead of bonus season, according to Insider.
This morning, Jeff Bezos showed up at the Washington Post’s headquarters unannounced, causing his staff to worry they too would face layoffs. In recent years the Washington Post has suffered dwindling ad revenue, a decline in site traffic and a shortage of new subscribers. Last month, its publisher Fred Ryan announced that layoffs were coming in the new year.
Google’s Alphabet also axed 12,000 employees globally.
At just seven large tech firms, the job cuts announced in recent months total nearly 70,000: Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, HP and Twitter.
Microsoft isn’t the only tech company hurting as the globe faces economic downturns following the COVID-19 pandemic
At just seven large tech firms, the job cuts announced in recent months total nearly 70,000: Amazon, Alphabet, Meta, Microsoft, Salesforce, HP and Twitter
Using the median salaries reported from those companies in regulatory filings, most of which are from 2021, DailyMail.com estimates that the combined annual salaries of the cut jobs is roughly $11.95 billion.
That figure does not account for the fact that Amazon, which has a large logistics workforce and a median salary of just $29,007, has primarily targeted higher-paying corporate roles in its total announced cuts of 18,000 workers.
It also does not include the many thousands of jobs that have been cut at smaller tech companies that are not household names.
Tech-driven firms cut more than 150,000 workers last year, according to a recently released analysis from Layoffs.fyi, which tracks firings in real time through information gleaned in media and company releases.
However, for laid-off tech workers, the news isn’t all bad, as data shows that most of them are landing new jobs relatively quickly after losing their jobs.
Sting has made several public appearances lately, including on his tour and on Hulu’s popular show Only Murders in the Building (pictured)
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