Microsoft Planning Additional Layoffs

Microsoft is planning to lay off more people beyond the 1,850 company officials announced would be cut in May 2016.

A July 28 Microsoft 10-K filing, which I saw via Business Insider, Microsoft acknowledged there would be additional job cuts coming during its fiscal 2017, which kicked off on July 1, 2016.

From that filing:

“In addition to the elimination of 1,850 positions that were announced in May 2016, approximately 2,850 roles globally will be reduced during the year as an extension of the earlier plan, and these actions are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2017.”

As of June 30, Microsoft employed about 114,000 people full-time, with 63,000 of those in the U.S., the SEC filing said.

A Microsoft spokesperson said the company wouldn’t comment beyond what was in the SEC filing and would not say how many of those being cut already have been let go.

In July 2015, Microsoft announced it would be cutting 7,400 people in fiscal 2016, primarily in the company’s phone hardware business. At that time, Microsoft officials said the company would take a $7.6 billion write-down related to its Nokia acquisition, plus a restructuring charge of between $750 million to $850 million.

Microsoft planned to complete the 7,400 job cuts largely by the end of calendar 2015 and completely by the end of fiscal 2016, which means June 30, 2016, officials said at the time.

In February this year, Microsoft made more cuts connected with its phone hardware business that were not part of the original round of 7,400. And in May 2016, the company announced the aforementioned layoff of 1,850 jobs that were mostly connected to its phone hardware business. That May round of cuts didn’t include the 4,500 jobs that Microsoft shed by selling off its feature phone business to FIH Mobile.

The majority of the 2,850 in the new round of cuts have already been notified, I’m hearing, including 900 people earlier this month related to the restructuring of Microsoft’s sales organization.

Last month, Microsoft announced that its Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner was leaving the company for a new job, and that his responsibilities would be divided among a handful of existing Microsoft execs as part of a sales and marketing reorganization.

Before Turner’s departure was announced, Microsoft’s Chairman of the Board signaled in a Bloomberg interview that Microsoft planned to make some changes to its sales organization in order to speed up the company’s transition to the cloud.