The company started the second wave of layoffs following the Nokia Devices and Services unit takeover

Sep 19, 2014 09:06 GMT  ·  By

As reported earlier this week, Microsoft kicked off the new round of layoffs following the Nokia acquisition on Thursday, with new sources claiming that 2,100 workers lost their jobs as part of this restructuring process.

Even though Microsoft hasn’t made any official statements on this second wave of job cuts, company CEO Satya Nadella confirmed in July that all those whose jobs were being impacted by the process would receive a notification by the end of the year.

Nadella announced at that time that no less than 18,000 employees would be fired following the Nokia Devices and Services takeover, as Microsoft was looking to integrate the new unit into its organigram and make all departments work more effectively.

The first round of layoffs affected approximately 13,000 employees, so a third wave is clearly coming, most likely by the end of the year.

Job cuts in almost all teams within the company

Microsoft isn’t targeting just a certain division with these job cuts, but pretty much all teams across the company, so work on almost all projects has been more or less impacted. This doesn’t necessarily mean that new releases could be delayed, as Microsoft has taken the necessary steps to ensure that the launch schedule goes according to the plan.

Although he didn’t clearly specify it in his September 17 announcement, Nadella hinted that most of the jobs targeted by this layoff came from Nokia, with people close to the matter claiming that 13,000 workers of the Finish phone manufacturer could lose their jobs.

As far as Microsoft is concerned, the world’s number one software maker lost employees in almost all divisions, including the Windows operating system, where a number of testers and developers have been let go as part of the cut.

Nadella, however, wants to streamline the development process of new products and encourage managers to learn new skills.

Difficult, but necessary, says Nadella

Nadella, who is only the third CEO in the history of Microsoft, is also the first who has to deal with such a large job cut which clearly affects thousands of people worldwide.

The new CEO, however, says that he had absolutely no other choice than to come down to this restructuring process for a faster and more effective integration of Nokia’s Devices and Services unit.

“My promise to you is that we will go through this process in the most thoughtful and transparent way possible. We will offer severance to all employees impacted by these changes, as well as job transition help in many locations, and everyone can expect to be treated with the respect they deserve for their contributions to this company,” Nadella said in his official announcement.

Nadella is in the meantime also bringing new members on the board of directors, so the new CEO is rebuilding the company from the ground up, but it will definitely take some time until the results of this transformation can be seen on the market.