Microsoft Cuts Another 2,100 Jobs

Continuing its effort to refocus its operations, Microsoft has cut another 2,100 jobs today, 747 of which came from the company’s Redmond offices.

We first heard about the forthcoming layoffs back in July, at which point the company said that a record 18,000 jobs would be cut, 13,000 of which were to be eliminated shortly after the announcement. A post on ZDNet claims that a sizable portion of the jobs lost in that cull came from the then-recently acquired Nokia division. Today’s layoffs bring the number up to 15,100, leaving a comparatively small 2,900 jobs left to be slashed in the next few months. A report on TechCrunch about the layoffs says that Microsoft employees are still in for at least one more round of layoffs – hopefully it won’t be much more than that, however.

Usually layoffs of this magnitude don’t happen mid-stream, so whatever projects those who’ve lost their jobs were working on is probably completed. Moreover, Microsoft is expected to unveil Windows 9 at the end of the month. It’s possible that these layoffs indicate that the bulk of the work on the new operating system is finished. That’s good news for Windows fans, but, obviously, terrible news for those affected by the job cuts.

Hopefully they’ll be back on their feet in short order – our sympathies go out to anyone hit by the layoffs.

[Sources: TechCrunch, ZDNet]