Hasta La Gadget!

Amid the flurry of terrible economic news, Microsoft yesterday reported an 11 percent drop in profits for the second quarter (down to $4.17 billion from $4.71 billion last year). Well, now it looks like things aren’t going to get any better in Redmond for the time being: the company’s announced it’s going to lay of 5,000 people over the next year and a half, citing the implosion of the global economy, saying they fully expect their revenue to experience further decline this year. Not fun. Check out Steve Ballmer’s truly depressing (yet terribly non-dramatic) memo to Microsoft staff after the break.