14 DAY TRIAL // After laying off thousands of people following the acquisition of Nokia’s Devices and Services unit, Microsoft is getting ready to let more people go as part of the company’s restructuring of the Skype business, with the Sweden office said to be the next in line to be hit by job cuts.
According to reports, Microsoft plans to shut down the office in Stockholm, a decision that would put all 120 jobs at risk, although it’s not yet exactly known how many of them would be laid off.
The company confirms in a statement that it’s indeed eyeing the closure of the Swedish office, but hasn’t provided any details, suggesting that other opportunities are indeed planned for impacted employees.
“Microsoft has made the difficult decision to start consultations with the trade unions to close the Skype office in Stockholm, potentially putting at risk all 120 employees,” a Skype spokesperson was quoted as saying.
“This proposal is consistent with our long-term aim to reduce our geographical footprint and co-locate teams to enable better collaboration, improved engineering efficiencies and increase the pace of innovation and quality. We are deeply committed to doing everything we can to help all those impacted through this process.”
London office also closed
The Sweden headquarters is not the first one that’s closed by Microsoft, as the company previously shut down the Skype office in London as well, with approximately 400 people impacted.
The London office shutdown was announced in 2016 and was seen by many as a result of the Brexit vote that has the United Kingdom leave the European Union. At that point, Microsoft also pledged to provide affected employees with other opportunities and to help those impacted by the shutdown process, and this is the case with the Sweden closure too.
We’ve reached out to Microsoft to see if more information is available on this and we’ll update the article if an answer is provided.