When a company as big as Microsoft finds itself in need of a reorganization, there are almost always casualties that result from the changes. That’s exactly what is about to happen to the tech giant, as multiple reports from inside sources suggest that the company is poised to downsize its boxed software business, and the changes could result in a sizable layoffs to Microsoft’s sales teams around the globe, affecting thousands of employees.
The layoffs, which will be needed due to redundancies in the reorganized sales division, will be “major” according to reports. They will largely affect those responsible for physical software sales, which is rapidly dying as cloud distribution of software becomes the standard across many industries. However, there’s little in the way of specifics regarding exactly what teams and regions will be scaled back.
This type of thing is becoming the norm for Microsoft, which just last year slashed several thousands of jobs related to its failing smartphone business. In 2015, the company axed even more than that when it began its butchering of the baggage it acquired from Nokia. Failing to catch a much-needed foothold in the incredibly competitive mobile industry has been Microsoft’s greatest failure as of late, and while this new round of rumored layoffs isn’t directly related to that, the theme of regular layoffs obviously isn’t great news for the company.
Microsoft has not commented on the reports, but the layoffs are expected to be announced over the next week or so.
