With a Q2 earnings report due on the 22nd of January 2009, Microsoft is rumored to be contemplating ringing in the new year with massive job cuts. A posting by Lars-Göran Nilsson on the Fudzilla technology blog and rumor site claims that 15,000 or so of Microsoft's global workforce of 90,000 "are expected to be giving marching orders come January 15th."

Rumors of a round of rare but substantial job cuts have been swirling for weeks now, with Electronista for example reporting before Christmas that substantial reductions "are believed to hint at significant financial difficulty at Microsoft, which had near-flat growth even in the summer, when the economic downturn had yet to fully materialize."

The San Francisco-based correspondent of the London-based Times corroborates the rumor today, saying:

"Microsoft is preparing to announce the first widescale layoffs in its 32-year history, with up to 15,000 jobs at risk...10 to 17 per cent of the company's 91,000 employees worldwide. MSN, the online division, is expected to be heavily affected."

The Times's Mike Harvey adds that Steve Ballmer, the company's chief executive, is to speak at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which opens next week.

Can Microsoft release a new version of the Windows operating system one week, and lay off more than ten thousand employees the following week? Is this a foretaste of 2009? What do you think? Join the discussion.