Microsoft plans to cut 3,000 jobs globally, says report

Layoffs will affect sales, though this move is to better serve customers, partners

Technology giant Microsoft is undertaking a major reorganisation that will likely see the company cutting about 3,000 jobs from its global workforce, a media report said today.

The layoffs under the restructuring at the technology giant led by India-born Satya Nadella will mostly affect sales, and as many as 3,000 jobs will be cut, CNBC reported.

The media report quoted a Microsoft spokesperson as saying that the company is implementing changes to better serve its customers and partners.

"Today, we are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under consideration or that their positions will be eliminated. Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re- deployment in others," the spokesperson said.

CNBC added that the job cuts amount to less than 10 per cent of the company's total sales force, and about 75 per cent of them will be outside the US.

The report added that Microsoft was going to specifically focus on how it sells its cloud-services product, Azure.

Microsoft's cloud business has been booming over recent quarters and the company - Microsoft noted Azure sales growth of 93 percent last quarter. "While Amazon has become a bigger competitor in the space, Microsoft's restructuring is to pivot to software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure," the report said.

Microsoft said its plan is to use employees who are more knowledgeable about specific verticals so they can sell bigger packages.

Microsoft has 71,000 employees in the US and 121,000 employees around the globe, suggesting that these cuts are relatively small compared to the size of its entire workforce, CNBC said.