Software maker Microsoft announced plans to cut an additional 2,850 jobs in its smartphone business.
The new job cut is in addition to the elimination of 1,850 jobs globally previously announced. The fresh job reduction indicates that Microsoft is facing the music after buying phone business of Nokia for $7.6 billion. Microsoft has already abandoned plans to grow the Nokia phone business and will focus only on the OS segment of Microsoft.
In a regulatory filing, the US-based technology giant said it will cut 4,700 jobs globally by the end of fiscal year 2017.
Last June, Microsoft, a business software giant, had announced it will cut 7,400 jobs from the smartphone business unit.
Earlier in May, signalling the end of its Nokia experiment, Microsoft announced it was cutting 1,850 jobs and writing off $950 million of which $200 million will be used for severance payments.
“We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation — with enterprises that value security, manageability and our Continuum capability, and consumers who value the same,” Indian-born Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.
“We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud services across all mobile platforms,” Nadella added.
According to a report in The Verge, the latest job cuts mean that the majority of former Nokia employees will no longer be working at Microsoft.
Almost a year ago, Nadella had announced a “more effective and focused phone portfolio” with business, value phones and flagships gaining prominence.
“We’re scaling back, but we’re not out!” said Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s head of Windows and devices.
“Phone success has been limited to companies valuing our commitment to security, manageability, and continuum, and with consumers who value the same,” Nadella added.
Microsoft’s Lumia and Windows Phone strategy has failed as both sales and Windows Phone market share have declined since the tech giant’s mobile restructuring last year.
