Microsoft Is Set To Lay Off Thousands Of Employees

Microsoft is the latest company to prepare itself for massive layoffs. The tech giant has confirmed that it will be laying off a significant portion of its workforce, totaling about 10,000 people, which is roughly just below 5% of its entire workforce. This is yet another story of mass layoffs at a massively powerful and profitable company.

 

The news was first reported by Sky News in the UK, but was later elaborated on by Kotaku and Bloomberg, to show that these gigantic layoffs would affect many positions, including in the UK. According to those reports, but unconfirmed by Microsoft at time of writing, the studios that are affected include the Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Starfield developer Bethesda Game Studios, the Gears of War developer The Coalition, and the Halo developer 343 Industries.

However, Microsoft has since confirmed the reports themselves in a blog post by explaining that spending habits have changed in consumers and that these jobs have been cut to make way for such changes, but the company has not explained which jobs have been cut. The company’s statement also explains that Microsoft has set aside over a billion dollars for severance costs, changes to its hardware portfolio, and the cost of higher density workspaces. So, at least there is the news that these workers will receive severance.

The company also promises to treat their workers with dignity, respect, and transparency as they institute these layoffs. However, this all comes in the midst of the progressively ugly attempt at an acquisition of Activision-Blizzard-King by Microsoft, with the EU recently appearing to come out against the merger and other tech giants like Google and Nvidia opposing it. Did that, in any way, play a role in this decision? Perhaps. Perhaps not. It is not particularly useful to speculate.

Hopefully those who have lost their jobs will be able to get back on their feet sooner rather than later. We wish them luck in the weeks and months ahead.
 

Justin van Huyssteen (@LC_Lupus)
Senior Editor, NoobFeed