Microsft cuts thousands more jobs and takes $7.6bn writedown on Nokia phone business acquisition
Microsoft chief Satya Nadella has made another round of job cuts as the business took a multi-billion dollar writedown on its purchase of Nokia.
The struggling PC business will lay off 7,800 staff, the majority of whom work in the phone side of the business.
It will also take a writedown of $7.6bn on the Nokia business it acquired just last year for $7.2bn, in addition to restructuring charges of between $750m and $850m.
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“We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem including our first-party device family,” Nadella said. “In the near-term, we’ll run a more effective and focused phone portfolio while retaining capability for long-term reinvention in mobility,” said Nadella in an email to staff.
Last year, Nadella made 18,000 job cuts in an effort to restructure the unwieldy business, 40 per cent of whom were from the Nokia side of the business, and the equivalent of around 14 per cent of the 127,000 strong workforce at the time.
Nadella has already made a senior shake-up in recent weeks in which former Nokia chief Stephen Elop departed.
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Microsoft will take the charge in the fourth quarter of the year. It's fourth quarter results are due on 21 July.
Shares in the company were largely flat, inching up by around one per cent to $44.45 per share at pixel time.