Layoffs Under Way at Microsoft
The other shoe is dropping in the major sales and marketing reorganization that Microsoft began implementing earlier this week: The company started notifying employees of massive layoffs on Thursday.
Layoffs numbering in the thousands had been rumored and widely reported over the last few weeks, but leaked versions of companywide memos about the restructuring on Monday made no mention of layoffs.
CNBC reported on Thursday that Microsoft was cutting up to 3,000 jobs, with about 75 percent of them coming from offices out of the United States. For context, Microsoft has about 121,000 employees worldwide, 71,000 employees in the United States and about 52,000 employees in the affected global sales, marketing and worldwide business unit.
Thursday morning, Business Insider reported about Microsoft employees posting on the anonymous chat app, Blind, which is in use by about 25,000 of the company's workers, that they had been scheduled for 15-minute meetings where they expected to be laid off or transferred to new roles.
Microsoft confirmed cuts, but not numbers, in a statement to CNBC: "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."
The layoffs are hitting just as Microsoft's fiscal year is beginning and as the company prepares for two of its most important business-related gatherings -- the partner conference, Inspire, next week, and the internal sales meeting the following week.
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Posted by Scott Bekker on July 06, 2017