Microsoft is reportedly preparing to lay off thousands of employees as soon as tomorrow, as the company looks to restructure its business and streamline operations.
As reported by Sky News, the company is making the move in an effort to prepare for a “slowing global economy.” According to the report, the company could be cutting as much as five percent, or 11,000 jobs, from its workforce.
Microsoft, which employs more than 220,000 people, including 6,000 in the UK, is said to be contemplating cutting roughly 5% of its workforce, which if accurate would equate to approximately 11,000 jobs. That figure could not be verified on Tuesday evening, and one analyst suggested that Wall Street would be surprised if the figure was not higher than that. It was also unclear whether or how many UK-based positions might be affected.
Back in October, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella warned that something like this could happen, echoing the same kind of vocabulary as Apple CEO Tim Cook, saying that the company was looking to be “disciplined” with its costs.
“In a world facing increasing headwinds, digital technology is the ultimate tailwind…In this environment, we’re focused on helping our customers do more with less, while investing in secular growth areas and managing our cost structure in a disciplined way.”
If true, the layoffs from Microsoft would number the number of employees let go by another tech giant this year: Facebook. The social media giant let go of roughly 11,000 earlier this year along with others like Twitter, Salesforce, and more.
Microsoft has yet to officially announce the layoffs, but it is expected that the company will release a statement in the coming days. A spokesperson for the company did respond to Sky News saying that Microsoft “does not comment on rumour or speculation.”
We’ll need to wait until tomorrow to see if the rumors are true.