Ax Falls at Microsoft as Company Looks to Cut up to 18,000 Jobs
July 17th, 2014Via: Recode:
Microsoft on Thursday announced it plans to cut up to 18,000 jobs this year–its deepest-ever cuts–as the company looked to digest its Nokia acquisition and reposition itself for the future.
Following the Nokia acquisition, completed in April, Microsoft had roughly 127,104 employees, meaning the cuts could reduce nearly 15 percent of its workforce.
Microsoft said the company is “moving now” on 13,000 of the job cuts, with the vast majority of the overall cuts coming in the next six months and fully implemented over the next 12 months.
Some 12,500 of the cuts are coming from the Nokia Devices and Services unit–roughly half that unit’s workforce. The company said it expects pre-tax charges over the next four quarters of $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion for severance and other costs.
