Microsoft is in the middle of a massive restructuring right now, with around 18,000 employees being let go. And while most of those employees are redundant thanks to the Nokia purchase, it looks like the company is focusing on other divisions as well.
News came over the weekend that Microsoft has fired its robotics team, which was until now part of Microsoft Research. The company has yet to announce this publicly, they might not at all, but robotics team leader Ashley Feniello blogged and tweeted about this.
Microsoft spends a whole lot on R&D and it’s interesting to see the company is reducing its efforts in what many consider the most important investments that the company can make. The Research arm of Microsoft has always focused on the future and has generally pointed the way forwards, towards a long-term goal.
It’s not clear if this is just a one-off thing or if the company is actually changing focus under the new management. Nadella, Microsoft’s CEO, is obviously interested in pushing his own “mobile first; cloud first” vision but we’re only now beginning to see what that actually entails.
Source: Ashley Feniello via: WMPU