Microsoft is reportedly in plans to lay off thousands of its employees around the world, in plans to restructure its sales group.
According to a source cited by TechCrunch, the layoffs will number in their thousands and also include an organisational merger involving Microsoft’s customer unit and one or more of its SME-focused divisions.
Rumours regarding the huge restructuring plans surfaced earlier this weekend, with publications such as The Seattle Times and Puget Sound Business Journal all reporting ‘major’ layoffs.
The reports associated with the cut in the workforce were linked with an increased emphasis on cloud service within Microsoft’s sales teams worldwide.
Microsoft’s sales groups has been in flux since the former COO Kevin Turner departed. Turner oversaw a group of 51,000 employees which handled the company’s sales, marketing, operations and technology needs. This group was then broken up following Turner’s exit.
Read more:Microsoft confirms scrapping of Finnish mobile unit, 1350 jobs to be lost
This also led to the restructuring of management whereby Jean-Philippe Courtois became EVP and head of global sales for marketing and operations department.
The last round of major cuts to Microsoft’s workforce came in 2016. It targeted 2,850 job cuts, 900 of which were employees of Microsoft’s sales group. This followed announcements made by the company to cut 1850 jobs due to the failure of its smartphone unit and then another 1350 jobs due to the cutting of its Finnish mobile unit in July 2016.
As the company’s fiscal year for 2017 approaches this month, Microsoft’s decision to make changes to the business structure comes at the right time for the business.
The reorganisation is expected to refine the sales roles, whilst also boosting the sales group’s focus on delivering cloud computing services at a wide scale.
