Software major, Microsoft Corp is expected to announce the biggest round of job cuts in five years. Microsoft is reportedly looking to integrate Nokia Oyj’s handset unit and more than 6,000 job cuts are expected to be announced on Thursday.
About 25,000 employees were added to Microsoft when it completed the acquisition of Nokia’s $7.2 billion devices and services division in April 2014.
The reductions are expected to be in the Nokia unit or parts of Microsoft with overlapping business unit and in departments of marketing and engineering as well.
After acquiring Nokia, Microsoft has a total 127,000 employees which is far more than Apple Inc and Google Inc. This will be Microsoft’s first major layoff since 2009’s cut of 5,800 cuts and the biggest restructuring in Microsoft history.
Some of the job cuts were rumored to be in marketing departments of the global Xbox team, and software testers. A memo was sent last week from the CEO, Satya Nadella to employees about flattening the organization and developing “leaner business processes”
The memo also revealed that Nadella is committed to developing the Xbox gaming platform, trashing talks of a unit spin-off. Nadella also said that the detailed organizational and financial issues will be addressed on July 22 when Microsoft’s quarterly results will be reported.
