14 DAY TRIAL // Sources close to the matter have indicated that Microsoft is planning to announce its biggest job cut ever and the new CEO Satya Nadella is expected to share more information on this on July 22.
Now a new report published by Reuters and citing Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat reveals that Redmond is actually preparing to send home a total of 1,000 workers from its mobile phone unit. The reason is as simple as it could be: 500 of these people are working in Oulu, northern Finland, at a former Nokia research and development unit, focusing only on software to be installed on basic cellphones.
Since Microsoft is ready to go all-in on smartphones, such a division doesn't make any sense, so it's turning to layoffs to reduce costs.
The other 500 workers are said to be employed by other Nokia facilities in Finland, but it's yet to determine their location.
Yesterday's reports indicated that Microsoft's new job cut could be biggest in history, topping the one announced in 2009 and counting 5,800 workers who have been left without a job.
Satya Nadella himself hinted that an in-depth reorganization was undergoing, but more details are only expected to be provided next week.
At this point, Microsoft has more than 127,000 employees, 25,000 of which have joined the company after the Nokia acquisition.