If your stock portfolio of contains Microsoft, today is a good day. Frankly, the past few weeks have been quite good for the company"s stock, as it has been climbing rather consistently since Satya Nadella took over the reigns as CEO.
While there is no doubt that Nadella is changing the way the company is operating and is installing a new "challenger mindset," Wall Strett loves layoffs from a profitable company; investors traditionally look at layoffs from a profitable company as a way to streamline operations and reduce unnecessary expenditures. When Microsoft bought Nokia"s devices arm, it also obtained more than 25,000 new employees; with that many acquisitions, there are overlapping roles that results in unnecessary overhead for the company.
Nadella hinted at layoffs in his open letter to employees, where he said organization change was needed and that more accountability should be taken by employees.
How many employees will be laid off is not known, but it is expected that these could be the largest layoffs in the company"s history. Some rumors have said up to 10 percent, which would push the number over 10,000, but until Microsoft says what the actual figure will be, this is speculation.
The logical time for Microsoft to announce the layoffs will be at its July 22 earnings call, but expect the company to communicate this information internally to employees before it"s made public.