A number of reports have suggested that global cloud giant Microsoft is to lay off 10% of its workforce.
Microsoft, which has headquarters in Redmond, Washington, United States, is a globally recognized brand that is traditionally known as the provider software, most notably its ubiquitous Microsoft Office communication and collaboration suite - a fixture in offices around the world for many decades. Microsoft has successfully transitioned to the cloud, now offering Office 365 and its Azure platform. With this change in focus, Microsoft is to downsize staff with around 3,000 poised to be laid off. The company confirmed it had started notifying staff yesterday - July 6, 2017. The bulk of those laid off will be outside the United States.
Microsoft’s employs 121,500 people globally and in 2016 the company employed 114,000 in the United States alone. Its focus now lies in selling subscriptions for software applications used through the internet rather than direct sales, with particular focus on Azure. The move is an extension of the company’s ‘Mobile First, Cloud First’ focus as prescribed by Satya Nadella when he took over from Steve Ballmer Microsoft 's CEO in 2014. Since then Microsoft has gained more corporate and government customers using cloud services.
"Microsoft is implementing changes to better serve our customers and partners,” explained a company spokesperson is a statement to the press. “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."
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