Microsoft CEO Defends Cuts to Worker Benefits

Microsoft Corp. Chief Executive Steve Ballmer defended his decision to cut employee healthcare and stock benefits, telling workers the software giant needed to reduce costs.

“We must ensure a competitive cost structure or competitors will offer prices, services or innovations that we cannot afford to match,” Ballmer wrote in a memo distributed companywide.

In May, the Redmond, Wash.-based company said it would charge U.S. workers a $40 co-payment for some prescription drugs and cut a discount for employee stock purchases.

Microsoft shares fell 55 cents to $28.02 on Nasdaq