Software giant Microsoft may reveal its biggest round of job cuts in five years this week, as the company seeks to streamline operations and integrate Nokia Ojy’s handset unit.
Bloomberg, citing people with knowledge of Microsoft’s plans, has reported that the job cuts will probably be in engineering, marketing departments for businesses such as the global Xbox team, and in areas such as Nokia and divisions of Microsoft that overlap with that business.
Layoffs in those latter areas may be required so Microsoft can honour the pledge it made in September of saving US$600m in annual costs in the 18 months after the close of its acquisition of Nokia’s mobile-phone business.
Other job cuts may result from changes CEO Satya Nadella is making to the engineering organisation, Bloomberg added.
At the beginning of the recession in 2009, Microsoft slashed 5,800 jobs, or 5pc of its workforce. That is reportedly the only time the company implemented restructuring across the company that affected thousands of workers.
Microsoft added 30,000 employees to its workforce after its purchase of Nokia’s handset unit, bringing its headcount to 127,104 as of 5 June.
The company, which employs almost 2,000 people in Ireland, is scheduled to report its fiscal fourth-quarter financial results on 22 July.
