TECH GIANT MICROSOFT is planning to cut jobs worldwide – with one US outlet reporting as many as 3,000 jobs are to go at the company.
However, sources here have told TheJournal.ie that the effect on Irish jobs will be minimal.
Earlier this year Microsoft announced that it is to create 600 jobs as part of a major investment in Ireland bringing its Dublin-based workforce up to 1,800.
Microsoft said yesterday it would cut an unspecified number of jobs amid reports that US tech giant was reorganising its global sales operations.
“Today, we are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under consideration or that their positions will be eliminated,” Microsoft told AFP.
Earlier, CNBC television said the company would be cutting some 3,000 positions, mostly from its non-US sales staff.
A Microsoft spokesperson would not respond to queries on how many jobs would be affected here. However, TheJournal.ie understands that the impact on Irish-based staff will be minimal.
The layoffs come as the US software giant refocuses its sales force on making Microsoft a pivotal part of businesses relying on cloud computing.
“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 other,” the company said in a statement.
Microsoft had more than 121,000 employees worldwide at the end of March, according to its website.
Additional staff in Ireland
Microsoft announced in February that it is to create 600 jobs as part of its investment here. The company immediately started hiring 500 people at its newly established EMEA Inside Sales Centre in Dublin.
The further 100 jobs were scheduled to be added to existing finance, operations, engineering and sales departments. These figures would bring the number of Microsoft staff in Dublin up to 1,800.
Microsoft Ireland is also set to move into a new campus in Leopardstown before the end of the year, in a €134 million investment in the company.
Tech overhaul
Global Equities research analyst Trip Chowdhry said layoffs such as those taking place at Microsoft as symptoms of a technology industry undergoing a “major overhaul” caused by a shift to computing and online services being hosted in the internet cloud.
“At companies transitioning from the old world to the new world you will see layoffs accelerate; it’s a slow and gradual and painful experience for them.”
Microsoft has been shifting to a cloud-based model under Nadella, as the industry moves away from packaged software that once was the core of its business.
The tech company said revenue from its “Intelligent Cloud” rose 11% from a year earlier to $6.8 billion.
It is to release its earnings for the recently ended quarter on 20 July.
Microsoft cut 7,800 jobs in 2015, and 4,700 last year.
- With reporting by AFP
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