Microsoft is said to be prepping for a massive job-cut spree, according to sources privy to the matter.
The company has been looking to close positions from its recent acquisition Nokia’s handset division that overlap the ones in its own unit, claims Bloomberg.
With the $7.2 billion acquisition, the company absorbed almost 25,000 Nokia employees into its workforce and now its looking for ways to strategically cut jobs to save costs.
The last time Microsoft went for a major job cut was in 2009 when it sent about 5,800 employees home to restructure its operations. The company has not shared it officially as the final list is still in the works, report claims.
Just a week ago, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said that the company will focus more on mobile devices, cloud computing and productivity software in the coming days and that the would share more information regarding his strategy later this month.
Though Nadella refused to open up regarding the job cuts during the interview earlier this month, he is expected to share the specifics on July 22 when the company publishes its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings results.
The company had about 127,104 employees before the addition of Nokia’s employees. Microsoft also has agreed to save $600 million in costs in an 18-month period post acquisition. People who are familiar with the matter said that the company will eliminate engineering and marketing positions.
Seen from another aspect, Nadella said that it is only sensible to have the developers test the software instead of employing a separate team to do it. Therefore, there are high chances of witnessing the elimination of Software testing jobs in the company. One of the sources also said that some of the cuts will be among the software testing team.
