Microsoft To get rid of as much as 7,800 Jobs

Microsoft workers working in the company’s smartphone division acquired some dangerous information today: The tech giant is planning to nix up to 7,800 jobs, and the bulk of layoffs are coming from its struggling phone division.

The news got here as little shock to industry watchers. Microsoft has struggled to absorb Nokia’s handset business when you consider that acquiring it remaining 12 months, and selling home windows phone as a substitute for Android or iOS gadgets has also proven difficult.

In an open letter to employees, CEO Satya Nadella framed the job cuts as a method to “sharpening trade focus”:

“i’m dedicated to our first-celebration units including telephones. alternatively, we want to focal point our cellphone efforts within the close to time period while driving reinvention. we’re transferring from a method to grow a standalone phone trade to a strategy to grow and create a brilliant home windows ecosystem that includes our first-party tool household.”

Microsoft may even be writing off $7.6 billion for what Nadella known as, in his email, “an impairment charge” associated to the Nokia acquisition. He went on to laud the corporate’s recent sale of its mapping belongings to Uber and advertising partnership with AOL. underneath Nadella’s leadership, Microsoft has been vocal about its desire to put its cloud platform and core products, like windows, entrance and heart.

Microsoft will likely be holding an organization-extensive Q&A session with Nadella on Thursday.

[by way of the brand new York instances]