Microsoft Cutting 2,850 More Jobs In Smartphone Business, Sales- Valutrics

The Redmond giant reveals in a regulatory filing that it’s planning another round of job cuts in addition to the 1,850 cuts it announced in May.

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Microsoft is planning to eliminate approximately 2,850 more jobs over the next 12 months, according to the company’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The cuts will be primarily across the Redmond giant’s dwindling smartphone business as well as global sales.

This latest round of cuts, which represents 2.5% of the software giant’s global workforce, will be in addition to the 1,850 positions Microsoft announced in May that it would eliminate. Those layoffs were also largely coming from its smartphone business.

Microsoft has been making deep cuts to its smartphone division since 2014 and this newly revealed round marks its fourth significant workforce reduction in this area.

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In 2014, the Redmond giant cut 18,000 jobs — it’s largest layoff to date, with most of the pink slips going to employees tied to its Nokia Devices and Services Division. The cuts stemmed from its integration of the Nokia handset business, which Microsoft announced in 2013 that it planned to acquire for $7.2 billion.

Then in 2015, Microsoft approved a restructuring plan to cut 7,800 jobs worldwide, primarily in its smartphone division. The restructuring was aimed at streamlining its handset business.

But the hits to Microsoft’s smartphone division keep coming.

“We periodically evaluate how to best deploy the company’s resources. In the fourth quarter of 2016, management approved restructuring plans that would result in job eliminations, primarily across our smartphone hardware business and global sales,” Microsoft stated in its regulatory filing, in reference to the 1,850 job cuts it announced in May and the 2,850 roles that will be added as an extension to those earlier announced cuts.

[See Microsoft’s Mobile Roller-Coaster Ride: 9 Contributing Factors.]

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella provided insight into the May cuts, noting at the time in a statement: “We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation — with enterprises that value security, manageability and our continuum capability, and consumers who value the same.”

He added that that Redmond would continue to innovate across its devices and cloud services across all of its mobile platforms.

With this latest round of 2,850 worldwide, employees may not be completely surprised. In a post on TheLayoff.com, one user stated Friday, “900 have been notified, so in a week all 2,800 will know. It’s an old Microsoft layoff style — they do it swiftly and the layoff packages are great.”

Dawn Kawamoto is a freelance writer and editor. She is an award-winning journalist who has written and edited technology, management, leadership, career, finance, and innovation stories for such publications as CNET’s News.com, TheStreet.com, AOL’s DailyFinance, and The … View Full Bio