Earlier today, I received a tip from a trustworthy source that stated Microsoft was expected to announce layoffs on Monday. Seeing as this is a sensitive subject and goes well beyond writing about unreleased products that I typically hear about, I refrained from posting anything.
This evening, other sites are now hearing the same thing with layoffs expected to be announced next week and my sources are indicating that it is on the 23rd as HR has reserved a significant number of conference rooms on the company’s campus. Other reports state that the count will be 700 and this figure is part of the previously announced layoffs of 2850 individuals worldwide; my sources also state that this number appears to be accurate.
Earlier this year, Microsoft reported that it employed around 113,000 employees and with the acquisition of LinkedIn now complete, the number has climbed around 5500 or so. These cuts are not related to the acquisition of LinkedIn.
Microsoft is constantly evaluating its internal operations and these cuts are not expected to have a significant impact on its operations. With the additional overhead of its LinkedIn acquisition now complete, it would not be too surprising if there are further cuts as there is typically overlap with these transitions that result in unnecessary redundancy but nothing has been announced at this time.