Apple denied it had fired 50 salespeople, refuting a report the Cupertino, Calif.-based company had joined the growing number of tech companies forced to lay-off employees.
“An Apple spokesperson says Gawker’s report that 50 salespeople were laid off yesterday is not true,” Silicon Alley Insider reported Wednesday.
Tuesday, Silicon Valley rumor site Valleywag claimed a “tipster” said “major layoffs” of Apple salespeople were underway. The site later claimed to have “confirmed” the rumor after talking to “a source in Apple’s enterprise group.”
In response, Barron’s Eric Savitz downplayed the “major” portion, citing California regulation requiring companies notify the state of “significant” job reductions.
Microsoft, in January, announced plans to lay-off 5,000 workers over the next year and a half.
Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.
