New reports are stating that thousands of Microsoft employees could be facing layoffs this week--possibly the biggest round in the company's history.
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The news comes from Bloomberg, which reports that the job cuts would be at least the largest since the last major layoffs five years ago, when 5,800 employees lost their jobs. Bloomberg cites insiders familiar with the plans, who say the layoffs may be announced officially as soon as this week.
The cuts are likely to be focused on the newly acquired Nokia division, including previously existing segments of the business that now overlap. Marketing and engineering divisions may also be effected, the sources say. 30,000 new employees joined Microsoft in the Nokia deal.
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As Bloomberg points out, the cuts would come just a week after new Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella issued his first mission statement, explaining in what direction he wants the company to head. He called for greater emphasis on mobile and cloud computing as well as overall increased efficiency, all of which would relate to the reported reorganization of the new Nokia employees.
When Microsoft cut thousands of jobs previously, it was as a general response to the recession rather than what will likely be the result of the recent acquisition. Otherwise, layoffs are normally limited to--still unfortunately for the employees--a few hundred at once. The news may be announced officially this week, but could take longer as details are supposedly still being ironed out.
