Downmodded why? I. M. Wright's “Hard Code” (published by Microsoft no less) pretty much makes this claim. Apparently they used to laugh at GM's layers of management, and now they have a similar number.
I work in Seattle, and know a number of Microsofties, and this is a pretty reliable consensus too even for people who are still there. The org tree is very, very deep and this causes a lot of problems - especially as a company ages and people go from enthusiastic risk takers to CYA corporate types.
