This Unit Will Be The Hardest Hit When Microsoft Cuts 7,800 Jobs

Microsoft is now set to lay off 7,800 jobs from its workforce globally. This was made known in a letter by CEO Satya Nadella to Microsoft employees yesterday. Much of these cuts will be in the phone division a year after Microsoft acquired the Lumia brand from Nokia.

“As a result, the company will take an impairment charge of approximately $7.6 billion related to assets associated with the acquisition of the Nokia Devices and Services business in addition to a restructuring charge of approximately $750 million to $850 million.

I am committed to our first-party devices including phones. However, we need to focus our phone efforts in the near term while driving reinvention. We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem that includes our first-party device family.

In the near term, we will run a more effective phone portfolio, with better products and speed to market given the recently formed Windows and Devices Group. We plan to narrow our focus to three customer segments where we can make unique contributions and where we can differentiate through the combination of our hardware and software. We’ll bring business customers the best management, security and productivity experiences they need; value phone buyers the communications services they want; and Windows fans the flagship devices they’ll love.”

It was reported that Android and iOS controlled 96% of the mobile OS market in 2014 alone with Windows and Blackberry came a distant third and fourth. Just like BlackBerry whose messenger app is now a cross platform app, Windows has also announced that its cortana application will soon be a cross platform application as well.