Back in July, Microsoft announced an employee jobs cut that would eliminate 18,000 people from its roster. The first round occurred immediately, with a second round hitting last September and a third in October. Now, the fourth and possibly final round of layoffs have come about, leading to the release of hundreds of Microsoft employees.
The layoffs were largely due to the acquisition of Nokia"s devices and services division, which placed 25,000 new employees under Microsoft"s payroll. The acquisition would bring important people and products under Microsoft"s control, but such a large addition to the workforce created unnecessary redundancy in a company that direly needed restructuring.
“We expect this to be the last of the anticipated broad cuts as part of the restructuring plan announced last July"
-Microsoft Spokesman
The total number of employees released this last week has not yet been confirmed, but in January Microsoft had issued a statement which estimated 500 employees could be cut in the final round of these job cuts. Besides acquired Nokia employees, the Bing division and Xbox Europe and Xbox China had seen significant job cuts as a result of the plan laid out last July.
Source: The Seattle Times