But shh - we haven't told them yet :D

"Change has always been a constant at Skype and will continue to be."

means we only exist on a wing and a prayer so have no idea what next week will bring, let alone next month so we tend to get caught out now and again, such as now.

"We will keep re-shaping our business to take advantage of the immediate and short-term opportunities in front of us."

means thay are going to cut jobs unless some cash appears in the bank from wherever it is cash comes from. If it does then they won't cut jobs, unless they change their mind, which they might because they constantly change. The important thing to remeber is customers have nothing to worry about, unless things change, which they will, unless things change that is.

"Management at the main office of Skype knows bugger all about what's going on, and can't be arsed to ask the London management team."

We have a PR department full of overqualified liberal arts graduates and we aren't afraid to use them!

... "We will do whatever is necessary to maximise profits and minimise costs."

Well, eh.. this means "we are not doing all that well actually. Our IM is OK, but proprietary. We are owned by a large company with questionable motives. Our phone costs look cheap but in fact are quite high due to minimum costs, so a short call is cheaper using your Telco. And your Telco does not come in echoes, halts and starts. So we can no longer afford to pay thirty people with little to show for it. Sorry. Maybe we'll work it out yet. Meanwhile, some of our thirty people are looking for a job. Don't suppose you'd have any going?"

Staff have been put on notice that whoever scores, at the Christmas party, with that bird from accounting that the director has his eye on will be fired.

No No No No No No No ...... Yes

... those who pilot the ship have no idea what a compass is. In other words they're hinting that executives who run technology companies often have no idea about technology, what to do with it, or how to make money with it. LOL.

Sounds like a politician or IBM Executive.

Nice translation Scott

Change is a constant?

Who the fuc*k does that bit of programming????? Skype's technique must be "Variables don't and constants aren't "

"We have a map and two free hands. We still can't find our own arses."

Oh and it's not Yoda-like. That would be:

"Constant at Skype change has been and will be ever. Opportunities before us there are in the now. Re-shape our business will we always."

How can a liberal arts graduate be overqualified for anything, except possibly wiping their own arses?

Anyway, the first sentence is almost entirely redundant, since a constant by definition was constant in the past and will still be constant in the future. While the second sentence is bleeding obvious. A full, concise translation is:

"We do stuff. We want to do stuff that makes money."

No, this doesn't answer your question in any way whatsoever. But if you read between the lines, it proves the rumours are completely false. Giga OM claims that the cuts were in marketing. Only trained marketing professionals could trot out such complete meaningless nonsense. Therefore, they have not been sacked.

"Yes."

Skype Estonia CEO Sten Tamkivi said, that worldwide are around 20 people lost their jobs. "Job Cuts is not a right words - we rearrange our organization permanently. There been rearrangements also previous week" he said and denied that reason for these "rearrangements" is dissatisfaction from side of eBay.

Also Tamkivi commented, that dismissal of people from company does not mean, that these people are not good in their jobs. "For example, there been rearrangements also in my team - I wanted to bring one task closer to engineers - to Tallinn, therefore we had to dismiss 3 people from our London office."

"Change has always been a constant at Skype and will continue to be."

means: "We've got no idea what we're doing here..."

"We will keep re-shaping our business to take advantage of the immediate and short-term opportunities in front of us."

means: "We like to manage things flying by the seat of our pants and just lay people off when cash gets short"

...we still haven't figured out how to make money from a free service. When we do we'll be big, but in the mean time we'll have to stay small enough to change our "business model" at the drop of a hat. Oh, and we have no money to pay anyone. w00t!

I wonder if they'll inform their staff by IM message (just before they shut the service down).