Microsoft Announces Layoffs of Approximately 1,000 Employees
On Monday, the Microsoft Corporation announced its intention to lay off approximately 1,000 employees, UNN reports, citing The Verge.
According to CNBC, among the affected departments are the Mixed Reality division working on HoloLens 2. Business Insider also reported about layoffs of «hundreds» of employees in Azure for Operations and Mission Engineering.
Microsoft representative Craig Sinclair stated in a letter sent to The Verge: «Today we announced a restructuring of the Microsoft Mixed Reality organization. We remain committed to the IVAS program for the Department of Defense and continue to provide cutting-edge technology to support our soldiers. Additionally, we will invest in W365 to develop a hardware ecosystem for mixed reality. We will also continue to sell HoloLens 2, supporting existing customers and partners.»
This round of layoffs comes about a year after a previous round of layoffs at Microsoft, where over 10,000 people were let go. CEO Satya Nadella stated that the company is reviewing its hardware portfolio. Since then, Microsoft has made a deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, invested heavily in artificial intelligence, and started promoting computers with artificial intelligence through a new series of Surface devices based on Qualcomm chips.
