The ill wind that has blown off several thousand jobs at Microsoft is set to hit the Redmond, Washington headquartered multinational corporation again. Microsoft is set to announce a new round of job cuts as soon as today Wednesday, July 08, 2015, with an impact to be felt in its hardware business, including the smartphone unit it acquired last year from Nokia, reports The New York Times.
The latest cull follows the company’s reduction of 18,000 jobs, or 14 per cent of its full-time workforce, almost exactly a year ago. That was the biggest layoff in the company’s history.
The latest job cuts will affect Microsoft’s hardware group, which incorporates the handset division acquired from Nokia for $7.2 billion.
CEO Satya Nadella alluded to making “tough choices in areas where things are not working” in a mission statement sent out to all Microsoft employees last month, and it is likely that the upcoming job cuts are a part of that realignment.
That doesn’t mean that Microsoft is ditching the smartphone business, or shifting focus away from Windows Phone. The Redmond giant is set to unveil two flagship devices later this year alongside Windows 10 Mobile.
But the latest move is not so surprising, given an email sent to employees in late June by CEO Satya Nadella about taking “tough choices in areas where things are not working and solve hard problems in ways that drive customer value”.
The company then sold part of its mapping business to Uber, and offloaded its online display advertising business to AOL.
And Microsoft announced four senior executives leaving, including Stephen Elop, the former CEO of Nokia who headed Microsoft’s devices unit after its acquisition by the US company.
A new team headed by Terry Myerson called the Windows and Devices Group (WDG) will combine the existing Operating Systems Group and Microsoft Devices Group (MDG).
Microsoft, which has not commented on the job cuts, employs more than 118,000 globally.