Microsoft to cut about 2850 more jobs

Microsoft will lay off 2,850 workers, a move that comes in the wake of two earlier rounds of job cuts as the company has curtailed its mobile phone business.

Microsoft is planning to lay off 2,850 employees in the next 12 months, according to a report by Business Insider.

After another year, in 2015, Microsoft announced that it would completely write off the Nokia acquisition (which totaled $7.6 billion by then).

“We periodically evaluate how to best deploy the company’s resources”, the SEC document said.

Earlier this year, Microsoft let go of another 1,850 employees, also from the smartphone division.

The cuts are an example of Microsoft continuing to whittle down its position in the smartphone market, with the company’s acquisition of Nokia back in 2014 now being nearly completely nullified. Past year alone, the software giant announced plans to cut roughly 7,800 jobs primarily from its phone sector, and suffered a $7.6 billion write-down related to its 2014 acquisition of Nokia, for which it paid $7.2 billion.

The latest cuts heap misery on Microsoft staff, after the software giant confirmed in May that 1,850 jobs would be lost at its mobile wing-even as its Windows and devices veep Terry Myerson insisted: “we’re scaling back, but we’re not out!”

The company bought Nokia’s core operations for $7.6bn in 2014.

Microsoft – the maker of Windows OS – has found it hard to find a stable ground for its smartphone business, ever since the acquisition of Nokia’s hardware business for $7.6 billion in 2014. The handset (s) will reportedly be designed by Microsoft’s highly regarded Surface team led by Panos Panay.

Steve Ballmer, who was CEO at the time, was criticized by investors for failing to adapt Microsoft to changing consumers preferences from computers to smartphones.

In a U.S. regulatory filing, Microsoft said “we periodically evaluate how to best deploy the company’s resources”.

Microsoft has announced more job cuts are on the anvil as the company struggles to come to terms with its loss-making, market share losing mobile hardware division.

According to the filing, the MS Windows maker had 114,000 employees, 63,000 of which were in the USA as of June 30.