Earlier this week, details emerged of another major restructuring at Microsoft, focusing on the company's global sales teams. Massive job cuts were rumored to be part of the firm's latest restructuring, and today, Microsoft confirmed that a large number of people will indeed lose their jobs.
Microsoft told CNBC that as many as 3,000 jobs will be cut from its global workforce, primarily in its sales division. Most of those positions facing the axe will be outside the United States.
The company is making significant changes to its sales teams to reflect changes in both its product line-up, and how its customers are buying its products. Microsoft will be focusing more heavily on sales related to its Azure cloud platform, and its restructuring is designed to align the company's sales teams with those ambitions.
In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said:
Microsoft is implementing changes to better serve our customers and partners. Today, we are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under consideration or that their positions will be eliminated. Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re-deployment in others.
Microsoft's Azure business has been a cornerstone of its success in recent years, under the leadership of its CEO, Satya Nadella. During the quarter ending in March, the company reported a 93% year-over-year increase in Azure revenue, following similar massive growth in previous quarters.
The latest round of job cuts follows the removal of 7,800 jobs from Microsoft's workforce in 2015, after its disastrous acquisition of Nokia's devices and services business a year earlier, which led to a further 1,850 jobs being cut in May 2016; and another 2,850 job losses in July 2016 as part of its Phone Hardware Restructuring Plan. Microsoft still has over 120,000 employees around the world.
Source: CNBC
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