Microsoft Confirmed to be Laying off Hundreds of Staff Across Company

Microsoft is confirmed to be laying off hundreds of staff members across various divisions of the company. It’s been reported that the layoffs are hitting upwards of hundreds, yet less than 1,000 in total.

The Redmond-based company is the latest tech giant to face layoffs as the company is said to be making “structural adjustments.” As reported by Eurogamer, Microsoft states that the company ” will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead.”

While Microsoft has laid off staffing across different sectors, one division is closing down entirely. An unfortunate casualty of this latest wave of layoffs hit the Studio Alpha team. This team was in charge of developing military and commercial wargame simulations using Microsoft’s cloud-based Azure tech.

Microsoft currently employs roughly 180,000 global staff members. The round of layoffs ultimately hits less than one percent of employees but is still a sizeable number. Microsoft claims that it is due to weaker sales of Windows licenses for PC. Microsoft’s latest earnings will be reported on October 25th.

Of course, this also comes at a time when the company is aggressively looking at acquisitions for the Xbox brand. Following the $7.5 billion USD acquisition of Bethesda Parent Company ZeniMax Media, the company is also seeking to purchase Activision Blizzard. Microsoft is in the midst of seeking approval from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) over the $68.7 billion USD sale.