It has been one year since Microsoft announced it’s plans for having a layoff of around 18,000 people.
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“Over the past few weeks, I’ve shared with you our mission, strategy, structure and culture”. “However, we need to focus our phone efforts in the near term while driving reinvention”.
The future is what has lead Microsoft to make a significant reduction in its job positions globally and mainly throughout its phone business. The company will also spend up to $850 million on restructuring.
Creative Strategies analyst, Ben Bajarin said narrowing the focus on mobile will allow the company to devote its resources to its strongest areas like software and cloud development, noting that the company has served mobile phone customers ranging from low end to premium tier.
The job losses are part of a fundamental restructure of Microsoft’s phone business.
Microsoft bought the once-iconic Finnish mobile phone maker for $7.3 billion in April 2014. The entire lay-off operations are expected to be completed by the end of the company’s fiscal year and with it, Microsoft hopes to shake off the doldrums and become a majority player in the smartphone market competing against the likes of Apple and Samsung. Its road ahead will focus on business customers, Windows software devotees and those looking for cheap smartphones.
The company will no longer try to build a standalone phone business, but instead plans to build a Windows ecosystem that includes its own devices, CEO Satya Nadella told staff in an email announcing the changes.
“In the near term, we will run a more effective phone portfolio, with better products and speed to market given the recently formed Windows and Devices Group”.
Microsoft wouldn’t disclose how many jobs in the Puget Sound region will be lost, but a spokesman says most of the layoffs will happen outside the USA Overall, the job cuts amount to more than 6 percent of Microsoft’s workforce.
Microsoft’s leader is taking big steps to reinvent its mobile strategy.
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Windows Phone will be absorbed by the mobile version of Windows 10 when the new operating system launches this year, and a new flagship Lumia smartphone has been tipped for release this September.
