(Reuters) Big job cuts at Microsoft. The world’s largest software company is cutting up to 7,800 positions – most of them in its phone business.
This move comes just one year after it launched one of the largest layoffs in tech history – some 18,000 jobs – as it tried to focus on cloud computing and mobile software services. Microsoft will write off $7.6 billion associated with Nokia’s handset unit it bought last year. It’s also taknig a restructuring charge of up to $850 million.
Microsoft has been struggling to boost sales of its Windows phones and its mobile operating system which badly trails Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android platforms. Last month, Microsoft announced that Stephen Elop, the former head of Nokia who had rejoined the company, would be leaving.
Microsoft’s stock, whose nearly 5 percent loss this year has underperformed the Dow and Nasdaq, rose at the open.
News of the job cuts precedes two events: Microsoft earnings announcement on July 21 … and its July 29th launch of a new version of Windows that will run across PCs, tablets and phones. Microsoft’s not hanging up on phones just yet.
