After acquiring Nokia’s phone business for $7.2 billion two years ago, Microsoft wrote off $7.6 billion last year and cut 7,800 jobs to refocus its phone efforts.
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The United States company said it would shed up to 1,850 jobs, a lot of them in Finland, and write down US$950 million from the business. And this morning, it’s been revealed that more employees are to lose their jobs, most of which will go in Finland as Microsoft ends local phone design and manufacturing.
The US company entered the phone business in 2014 when it bought Finnish firm Nokia’s handset unit. The company said that it will be implementing significant job cuts in its devices division, to the tune of 1,850 jobs in addition to the 4,500 jobs that it said last week were going away.
Naturally, this move will put a stamp on Satya Nadella who is the chief executive, on the USA company. “We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud services across all mobile platforms”, he continued. Only a few will remain as part of a research and development team.
Microsoft Corp.’s decision to further dismantle its shrunken mobile phone operations leaves the software giant betting that it can revive its fortunes in a critical market segment by focusing on the one area where it still may have strength: securing and managing mobile devices on corporate networks.
From almost the beginning, Microsoft’s acquisition of Nokia’s mobile division was a bloody one: Less than three months after the Redmond, Wash. -based tech giant’s initial purchase, 12,500 employees – a full 50 per cent of the 25,000 who had transferred from Nokia to Microsoft – were let go. First, it made it easier for users to clean install Windows 7 and 8.1 (essentially making it easier to downgrade from its beloved Windows 10), and now the company has actually listened to the negative feedback.
After years of struggle, Microsoft finally let go of its Nokia phone business and agreed to sell the brand. As a result, Microsoft is apparently done with consumer phones moving forward, and will be focusing on the enterprise.
While Microsoft is yet to officially release a statement about its latest move, some tech analysts consider it the final nail in a coffin that contains Microsoft’s mobile dreams.
Just last month, Terry Myerson, Executive Vice President of the Windows and Devices Group, in an internal email owed allegiance to Windows mobile.
The objective of the Nokia acquisition, overseen by the previous CEO Steven A. Ballmer, was to transform Microsoft into a heavyweight mobile contender for Apple and Google.
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“It’s a Windows phone”, he said as the audience laughed.
