Microsoft could lay off as many as 1,000 former Nokia employees as part of a productivity push by CEO Satya Nadella.
Microsoft, which now has more than 120,000 employees after its purchase of Nokia's phone unit last April, is starting its job cuts push in Finland, its new acquisition's home base.
According to a report from Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, Microsoft is planning to close a former Nokia research and development facility in Oulu. This means that the 500 employees in the research unit would be laid off. The employees in the facility worked on software development for low-end phones. The other 500 jobs affected by the round of layoffs would come from other former Nokia facilities in Finland. Currently, Microsoft employs 25,000 former Nokia workers.
Nadella, who promised to "flatten" the company in a recent letter to employees, is not only looking to initiate business-related changes within his company, he also wants to revamp its culture. Aside from moving the company's core into productivity and platform for mobile and cloud services, he also urged teams within Microsoft to make their processes leaner.
The move is in line with Nadella's vision. The layoffs are likely meant to eliminate positions that have become redundant due to its acquisition of Nokia. The number of jobs that are said to be on the chopping block represents more than one-fifth of the Finnish workforce that Microsoft from the Nokia deal. Currently, the company employs more than 4,700 former Nokia employees in the country.
The Finland layoffs may be just the start of massive job cuts within Microsoft. Last week, Rick Sherlund, an analyst at Nomura Securities, said that he expects the company to lay off around five to ten percent of its total workforce. This means that the company may end up cutting 25,000 employees from its payroll. This prediction is in line with an earlier report from Bloomberg. Insiders with knowledge of Microsoft's strategy said that the company is looking to surpass its most recent round of large-scale job cuts. In 2009, the company laid off 5,800 employees.
Analysts expect Microsoft to announce the job cuts next week when it releases its latest earnings report.
