Microsoft Begins Lay-offs with 2,100 Employees

Microsoft is cutting another 2,100 people in round two of its previously announced planned layoff of 18,000.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the 2,100 figure, noting that 747 of those laid off will be in Washington state.

The remaining cuts will be at other Microsoft locations worldwide, the spokesperson said.

The cuts will be across a variety of teams, as previously rumored. The Microsoft spokesperson declined to specify which teams would bear the brunt of the latest round of cuts.

Microsoft officials said in July that the company would be realigning its worldwide workforce by cutting 18,000 jobs, with 12,500 of those cuts coming from employees Microsoft acquired as part of its acquisition of Nokia’s handset and services business. Microsoft officials said the layoffs would happen over the course of several waves.

Microsoft cut 13,000 employees total in the first wave back in July. That wave included some, but not all, of the former Nokia employees, my contacts say. It also included employees in the Operating Systems Group and just about every other group across the company.

Microsoft also is planning to reduce its dependency on “contingent” (non full-time) employees by 20 percent as part of its realignment.

As of mid-July 2014, Microsoft had more than 125,000 full-time employees on its payroll, a number that included the 25,000 employees it acquired as part of its Nokia acquisition.

As a result of the layoffs, Microsoft officials said the company would incur pre-tax charges of $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion for severance and related benefits costs and asset related charges over the next four quarters.

With 13,000 cut in round one, and another 2,100 today, Microsoft still is planning to eliminate another 2,900 jobs by July 2015.