14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has recently decided to cut more jobs worldwide in a restructuring plan that the company describes as “common” since a new fiscal year started on July 1.
While the software giant has remained tight-lipped on how many employees were impacted, various reports indicate that approximately 1,000 people were let go as part of this new reorganization.
And a Reuters report indicates that the Microsoft Azure cloud division, one of the units that have turned into a money-making machine for Microsoft, is also impacted by the job cuts, although for now, no confirmation exists on this.
Earlier this year, it was rumored that Microsoft laid off some 800 editors that were working as part of the Microsoft News team. However, the company told us that these weren’t job cuts, but actually vendors contracts that were not renewed for the new fiscal year.
We have reached out to Microsoft for more information on the new restructuring plan and will update the article when we hear back from the company.
Azure, a key Microsoft cash cow
One of the reasons Microsoft was said to be looking into reorganizing certain teams, which would obviously lead to job cuts too, was the company’s commitment to AI. Some speculated, however, that the job cuts came as a result of the global health crisis, something that Microsoft denied in a statement.
“Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis,” a Microsoft spokesperson explained. “This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time to time, re-deployment in others. These decisions are not the result of the current pandemic.” Microsoft reported a 27 percent revenue increase for the Intelligent Cloud division in FY20 Q3, as server products and cloud services revenue increased 30 percent. Azure alone posted revenue growth of no less than 59% during the quarter. Overall, the unit generated $12.3 billion in revenue.