The job cuts are deep at Microsoft and Nokia got slashed the deepest.
Microsoft today announced that it will lay off 18,000 people (of about 127,000) over the next year with most of those cuts coming in the next six months. Of those cuts, Nokia will lose 12,500 employees that had come when Microsoft bought the cellphone manufacturer in a $7.17 billion acquisition that became official in April of this year.
“12,500 professional and factory positions will be eliminated through synergies and strategic alignment of the Nokia Devices and Services,” Microsoft said in a press release.
Microsoft did not go into specifics of which particular programs and departments are being cut in the Nokia division or in the remaining 5,500 positions that will be eliminated.
“[W]e are working to integrate the Nokia Devices and Services teams into Microsoft. We will realize the synergies to which we committed when we announced the acquisition last September. The first-party phone portfolio will align to Microsoft’s strategic direction. To win in the higher price tiers, we will focus on breakthrough innovation that expresses and enlivens Microsoft’s digital work and digital life experiences,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an email to employees published by the company.
The cuts at Microsoft are larger than most analysts predicted. The projection was that Microsoft would cut about 10% of the workforce with most of those cuts coming on the Nokia side and global marketing positions. The 18,000 positions that Microsoft cut about to almost 15% of its total workforce.
Lead image: Former Nokia CEO and current Microsoft executive Stephen Elop at Mobile World Congress 2014 by Dan Rowinski for ReadWrite.
