Hum.... the last time I hired someone who needs a H1B status, per legal, my HR needed to show that we couldn't find a citizen who could fullfill the role. It was quite a bit of extra work. So... this kind of exclusion looks like a hoax.
Actually it's HD Net, which is Mark Cuban's network. Looks legit to me. Also, it's easy for companies to hire visas because they just post a job description that only a foreigner would qualify for, but no citizen unless they are extremely lucky and ready to work for way less than they thought. We all hear about how companies can't find qualified employees....well this is part of the scam to hire foreigners.
Would you rather bring a foreigner to the US to do the job or send the job overseas? When I worked at Microsoft it struck me as odd how many indian women they had writing code. And then it dawned on me, women get paid less than men, foreigners get paid less than residents so hiring foreign women is the way to go (most american college graduates would rather work for a startup). Still better than sending the jobs to India which Microsoft does a lot of too. At least, the money stays in the US.
Microsoft and all software/tech Companies would prefer to send all jobs to India if they could. If they can insource jobs here for lower pay, they definitely are happier to outsource them. Question is, who will buy Microsoft Windows 8 machines over in America when they don't have good paying jobs making this stuff? Looking at Windows 8 sales today, apparently not many people. Wage Arbitrage is closing fast in the tech world as demand drops.
Look up how many H1B visas in total are granted each year and compare it with the IT worker shortage in the US. The numbers are something like 60 thousand of H1B visas (oh, also don't forget, not all H1B workers are in IT) vs. half a million and up expected shortage of IT professionals in the US.
If there is IT worker shortage, the laws of supply and demand would bring up the compensation. That's not happening. I think what we see instead is that there is a shortage of very cheap IT workers, like the ones who are willing to code for 30K/yr while they are in the U.S. on the H1B visas.
The Indians also use L1 visas to transfer their guys from India...no quotas. What I heard is that once an Indian becomes the manager, he proceeds to hire from his hometown/caste/etc...
Actually, it probably has more to do with the fact that Windows 8 makes some radical changes, whose benefits are not clear (particularly for desktop users). I've been saying this since I used a beta copy of Windows 8 this past summer. I could go on with the details, as well as with examples of other software companies who made the same mistake and paid for it with market share, but that would be OT here. Suffice to say, I doubt that the main reason for sluggish Windows 8 sales has anything to do with earnings or the economy.