Microsoft is about to put off hundreds of staff throughout all of its divisions, a brand new report launched as we speak claims.
In keeping with CNBC (which cites an announcement given to it instantly by Microsoft), 3% of all staff shall be laid off “throughout all ranges, groups, and geographies”. That is CNBC’s wording.
As CNBC factors out, Microsoft counted 228,000 staff on its books as of June final 12 months. That will imply that roughly 6,800 staff shall be shedding their jobs within the largest spherical of firm cuts since January 2023, when round 10,000 employees members have been laid off.
In an announcement as loaded with corpo-speak as you’d anticipate, a spokesperson informed CNBC that the layoffs are a part of “organizational adjustments essential to greatest place the corporate for fulfillment in a dynamic market”.
These cuts aren’t associated to efficiency, based on Microsoft; as a substitute, they’re about lowering “layers of administration”, as CNBC places it.
Regardless of Microsoft eager to “greatest place” itself for “success”, it appears the corporate is already attaining that success. Again in April, the corporate celebrated a buoyant third quarter for the 2024-25 fiscal 12 months, with income up 13% year-on-year and working earnings up 16%.
Xbox’s “content material and providers income” was up 8% in that very same interval, so no matter Microsoft’s motivation is for shedding hundreds of its staff, it could’t be to show round struggling fortunes.
These layoffs come simply a few weeks after EA introduced sweeping cuts to its personal workforce, with Titanfall and Apex Legends developer Respawn among the many EA subsidiaries most affected by the layoffs. Different studios hit by cuts in latest months embody BioWare and, er, Microsoft once more.
In fact, the staggering variety of staff the tech large has laid off in latest occasions did not cease CEO Satya Nadella scoring himself an eye-wateringly excessive payrise in 2024. Twas ever thus, eh?
In gaming phrases, Microsoft’s Xbox division is gearing up (no pun meant) to launch Gears of Conflict: Reloaded later this 12 months, and upcoming main titles embody Gears of Conflict: E-Day and Fable, though neither has a launch date as of but.
