Recently news surfaced that Microsoft may be laying off a huge number of employees. This news is all but confirmed as the tech giant will be laying off around 10% of their employees as part of a massive reorganization.
Microsoft currently has about 50,000 employees and a 10% cut would mean that 5000 employees will be let go although CNBC has reported the number to be around 3000. Majority of the layoffs are to be made in the Sales and Marketing sections of the company while groups related to Sales like the Finance & Legal department are also expected to be affected. The layoffs are part of a corporate reorganization under which Microsoft will be shifting its global workforce to focus more on selling its cloud-computing services. Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO, is focused on reforming their sales to support their Azure and Office 365 platforms.
An official statement from a Microsoft spokesperson stated:
“Microsoft is implementing changes to better serve our customers and partners. Today, we are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under consideration or that their positions will be eliminated. Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re-deployment in others.”
This news comes about a year after the Microsoft’s Chief Operating Officer left.
Microsoft hasn’t announced yet which employees they will be letting go. However, their fiscal year ends in June and Microsoft usually announces layoffs and reorganizations in July. In 2016 the firm cut off 2,850 of its workforce and 2015 saw an even drastic laying off of 7,800 employees.
Microsoft has not given a statement whether it will offer the affected employees any severance.
Source – TechCrunch
Image – IB Times
