Microsoft is reportedly set to announce thousands of layoffs on Wednesday

Update: Microsoft has confirmed plans to lay off approximately 10,000 employees

Microsoft is reportedly planning to cut thousands of jobs imminently.

According to Sky News, the latest round of layoffs at the US technology giant could see it axe roughly 5% of its 220,000-person workforce, which would equate to some 11,000 jobs.

Bloomberg is also reporting that Microsoft intends to cut jobs in a number of engineering divisions on Wednesday.

Update18th Jan 2023 / 2:49 pm

Microsoft has confirmed plans to lay off approximately 10,000 employees.

While the scale of the cuts is unclear, a source said to be familiar with Microsoft’s plans told the publication that the number of layoffs would be significantly greater than other rounds made by the company over the past year.

Microsoft laid off around 1,000 employees across the company, including staff working for its Xbox division, in October 2022.

The company is planning to report its second quarter earnings on January 24.

The following day, Microsoft is expected to announce release dates for several highly anticipated Xbox games during a product showcase.

The company has said it plans to reveal new details on games like Forza Motorsport, Redfall and Minecraft Legends, as well as launch dates for the titles, during the ‘Developer Direct’ event on January 25.

Following delays, Microsoft previously confirmed that Bethesda’s Redfall and Starfield will be released in the first half of 2023, and the former is reportedly targeting a May release.

Forza Motorsport is officially scheduled for release this spring and action strategy game Minecraft Legends is also coming in 2023.

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Look, let’s not fool ourselves here. We both know that you’re rather anti-MS while I’m rather anti-Sony. We both have our reasons but that’s not the point here.

It’s about jobs.

Of course you can read such a headline and go ahead condemning their “bad management” but only if you ignore the growth in their employee count.

This is no “layoff incident” and not a sign of bad management for three reasons :

1. It’s not a “Microsoft thing” but an “industry thing”. Nearly all tech companies lay off workers due to the transition from COVID-boom to a recession. Microsoft is no isolated incident.

2. It’s not necessarily “bad management” either because it’s common to hire more works during booming periods and laying off works when entering a recession. Moreover it’s also common to get rid of redundant jobs – especially after acqusitions.

3. You can’t seriously blame a company for laying off workers when they created about 6x more jobs at the same time.

I don’t think it’s that hard to understand, is it?

I just mentioned Sony because of double standards. You’re mad because a company acquires something while laying off workers despite creating 6x more jobs. At the same time your favorite companies also acquires a lot of studios, lays off about 3k employees each year while erasing about 1.8k jobs per year. They don’t create jobs, they lay off more workers than they hire. Not just recently – check out Macrotrends to find out that Sony’s workforce is consistently becoming smaller despite acquisitions over the past 10 years.

Sure you can get mad at Microsoft if you like. But unless you embrace double standards you should be 10 times more mad at a company that doesn’t create but erases jobs despite acquisitions.

Microsoft’s workforce over the past 5 years:
+ 68.7%

Sony’s workforce over the past 5 years :
– 8.2%

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Terry Sazio says:
17th January 2023 at 5:37 pm
If only Microsoft had a bit more cash to keep those 11,000 people in work – say an extra $68.7bn… hmmm. https://media2.giphy.com/media/MBCyiM4HIITb1E316S/giphy.gif
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1. My Wet Rooster says:
  17th January 2023 at 5:57 pm
  But they’re doing sooooo well! Right?
  R-Right???
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2. David Kephart says:
  18th January 2023 at 5:05 am
  True, True. But once the Deal is Finalized it shouldn’t be long before the profits help in the Re-hiring of these people in other positions.
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  1. Terry Sazio says:
    18th January 2023 at 8:32 am
    That’s a fair point, but considering the amount of money that Microsoft are spending to acquire A/B, they’ve really got no excuses (especially from a financial perspective) as to why they’re letting these people go to begin with.
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    1. David Kephart says:
      18th January 2023 at 12:54 pm
      Redundancies, Temporary positions, some Retirees that fill a position no longer sought after by other co-workers, streamlining a process. Various reasons for making for a better, tighter workplace happen everywhere. Video Gaming is No different…
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  2. bewareofZ says:
    18th January 2023 at 8:40 am
    It will take many years to get a return on this investment. Although King/CoD make money, I’m sure there are other studios/IP’s that don’t.
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Danny Mitchell says:
17th January 2023 at 7:20 pm
I hate it for the people affected. But from a business perspective trimming 1% is a pretty small layoff as far as the size of MS. It’s a lot of jobs but that’s only because MS has gotten so large especially recently. I would bet this affects Bethesda , and any other acquisitions as well. No need to have a standalone marketing department for them, just add the people you want to keep to yours. No need for HR at every company you acquired. Even things like plant management , security, IT (infrastructure). There are tons of jobs at these places that are redundant because MS already has the people who do that.
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Red Cloud says:
17th January 2023 at 7:44 pm
Bwahahahahahah!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
I can’t…
I’m gonna die laughing here right now!! 🤣🤣
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1. delta520 says:
  18th January 2023 at 1:00 am
  People losing their jobs isn’t funny. I enjoy console wars banter as much as the next guy, but laughing about people getting fired just doesn’t make sense to me.
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2. delta520 says:
  18th January 2023 at 1:00 am
  People losing their jobs isn’t funny. I enjoy console wars banter as much as the next guy, but laughing about people getting fired just doesn’t make sense to me.
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delta520 says:
18th January 2023 at 1:11 am
I wonder how Master Bater One will spin this into a Sony diatribe
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Xenu says:
18th January 2023 at 1:13 am
I’m not even surprised that known console warriors joke about the loss of jobs. It just shows how toxic & out of touch they are.
Sadly layoffs among tech companies aren’t rare these days. It’s a post-COVID thing. At least Microsoft’s employees don’t get fired with a two-weeks notice without any severance. They’re fairly compensated.
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Maruf Hasan says:
18th January 2023 at 4:38 am
Damn that’s some world ending event. Microsoft recruited 50000 employees in the past three years as COVID became a blessing for the tech industry. And now they’re laying off 11000 to combat the economical crisis. They shouldn’t have done that. They’re a charitable organisation. How dare they lay off such vast manpower.
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Fallenlords says:
18th January 2023 at 5:10 am
Get the impression with Microsoft that the right arm doesn’t know what the left arm is doing. I mean yeah the tech industry is volatile, but I would be totally enraged at them doing this while planning a $68.7 billion acquisition. I mean with that sort of money you can retrain people and restructure things.
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1. Xenu says:
  18th January 2023 at 4:43 pm
  They not just retained workers but actually increased their workforce by 90,000 employees over the past 5 years.
  That’s like claiming Sony had to close Japan Studios & layoff thousands in other sectors over the past 18 months – just to fund the Bungie acqusition.
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  1. Fallenlords says:
    18th January 2023 at 5:35 pm
    Microsoft are getting rid of 10,000 people in one fell swoop. While pursing a record-breaking industry acquisition of $68.7 billion. There is no defence for that. None whatsoever.
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    1. Xenu says:
      18th January 2023 at 11:58 pm
      Sure if you ignore that they hired 40,000 since they announced their acquisition plans.More than 60,000 new jobs since COVID.
      But yeah I don’t see any defense for Sony’s layoffs, after all they didn’t even hire more due to COVID. In fact they erased over 3,000 positions. Their employee count is steadily shrinking for the past 10 years.
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      1. Fallenlords says:
        19th January 2023 at 4:56 am
        You are way past the point of redemption if you think you can put any positive spin on Microsoft getting rid of 10,000 people. When they have a $68.7 billion acquisition in the background. That is hard to justify and at any scale. Regardless of what other companies have done in the past – this is terrible.
      2. Xenu says:
        19th January 2023 at 8:18 am
        That doesn’t change the fact that Microsoft created more than 60,000 jobs since COVID.
        And again, going by your logic you should be mad at Sony because despite spending billions to acquire 10+ studios they erased jobs over the past few years. Looking at Macrotrends Sony had about 50% more employees 10 years ago. In the same time frame they acquired over 15 studios.
      3. Fallenlords says:
        19th January 2023 at 8:49 am
        You really don’t get it do you, you are so far out there trying to defend Microsoft that I don’t think logic plays a part. The issue isn’t what jobs they have created in the past, or what Sony have done in the past etc. The issue is, they have just got rid of 10,000 people whilst actively pursing a $68.7 billion acquisition.
        So in essence, they are not short of money. Strange that Activision Blizzard has around what 9,500 employees which is around the same number of people getting binned at Microsoft.
        To each one of those 10,000 people, it is personal. Things like this can happen in the tech industry, fair enough. But you normally get binned when the situation is dire. Not when they have almost $70 billion dollars to spend.
        Trying to spin this one just won’t work. Laying off 10,000 people in one go is bad management, plain and simple. Not the first time Microsoft have done it either. This will impact games, it will impact Xbox and there is no positive. No matter how hard you try to spin it.
      4. Xenu says:
        19th January 2023 at 9:09 am
        You really don’t get it do you, you are so far out there trying to discredit Microsoft that I don’t think logic plays a part.
        Let’s throw Bethesda into the pot as well :
        Microsoft has CREATED 780 jobs per billion spent.
        Let’s compare that to Sony :
        Sony has ERASED 1,680 jobs per billion spent.
        How do you justify LESS JOBS while acquiring studios while condemning Microsoft for CREATING JOBS.
      5. Fallenlords says:
        19th January 2023 at 12:36 pm
        Not out to discredit Microsoft, they are doing a good enough job themselves. This is a specific incident that has just happened within the last day or so. And here you are trying to compensate by spewing figures to validate the incident or saying what Sony has done. Complete and total nonsense.
        There is no validation, they just got rid of 10,000 people. That is the reported incident, that is what is happening. 10,000 people some in 343 industries confirmed, some in Bethesda confirmed.
        I couldn’t defend Sony if they just dropped 10,000 people. I couldn’t defend anybody for doing that. As it boils down to bad management.
      6. Xenu says:
        19th January 2023 at 1:21 pm
        Look, let’s not fool ourselves here. We both know that you’re rather anti-MS while I’m rather anti-Sony. We both have our reasons but that’s not the point here.
        It’s about jobs.
        Of course you can read such a headline and go ahead condemning their “bad management” but only if you ignore the growth in their employee count.
        This is no “layoff incident” and not a sign of bad management for three reasons :
        1. It’s not a “Microsoft thing” but an “industry thing”. Nearly all tech companies lay off workers due to the transition from COVID-boom to a recession. Microsoft is no isolated incident.
        2. It’s not necessarily “bad management” either because it’s common to hire more works during booming periods and laying off works when entering a recession. Moreover it’s also common to get rid of redundant jobs – especially after acqusitions.
        3. You can’t seriously blame a company for laying off workers when they created about 6x more jobs at the same time.
        I don’t think it’s that hard to understand, is it?
        I just mentioned Sony because of double standards. You’re mad because a company acquires something while laying off workers despite creating 6x more jobs. At the same time your favorite companies also acquires a lot of studios, lays off about 3k employees each year while erasing about 1.8k jobs per year. They don’t create jobs, they lay off more workers than they hire. Not just recently – check out Macrotrends to find out that Sony’s workforce is consistently becoming smaller despite acquisitions over the past 10 years.
        Sure you can get mad at Microsoft if you like. But unless you embrace double standards you should be 10 times more mad at a company that doesn’t create but erases jobs despite acquisitions.
        Microsoft’s workforce over the past 5 years:
        + 68.7%
        Sony’s workforce over the past 5 years :
        – 8.2%
      7. Fallenlords says:
        19th January 2023 at 1:39 pm
        I have turned against Microsoft, but only because I bought an Xbox Series X (Xbox One, Xbox One X) and they have failed to deliver any decent games. And they push a service at me, Game Pass, that I don’t want or have interest in. Which has forced me to switch platforms and move away from 450+ game collection.
        Of course we are ignoring growth in employee count because it doesn’t matter one iota at this present moment in time. What is in the news, what is a current event. Is the loss of 10,000 jobs at Microsoft. And it is bad management, like bad management at Amazon ditching 18,000 in one go. That is not reading the writing that is on the wall with regard to the economy. Not shaping your business accordingly to mitigate things.
        And the issue with Microsoft is they are still pursing the acquisition for $68.7 billion dollars. With that sort of money, you can retrain, you can restructure – there are limitless possibilities.
      8. Xenu says:
        19th January 2023 at 2:09 pm
        I bought every PlayStation at launch day and never bothered with Xbox until 2019 & 2020 two events made abolish PlayStation as main platform. I didn’t even knew about Game Pass and learnt about it after preordering a Series X. I’m happy with it and won’t move back.
        It would be bad management to retain 10,000 redundant jobs. You wouldn’t even be able to explain investors why you keep 10,000 employees you don’t need. That’s why all companies face layoffs during recessions.
        There’s literally no point in spending billions on employees you don’t need.
        And again, despite acquiring Activision Blizzard, Microsoft created 40,000 jobs last year. Substract the 10,000 layoffs and it’s still a net positive of 30,000 new jobs.
delta520 says:
18th January 2023 at 12:37 pm
It’s called being empathetic. Have you ever been fired or lost your job? It really sucks. These are people like you and me, regardless of what company they work for. They have wives, husbands, kids, girlfriends, boyfriends. I just don’t think cheering about people losing their source of income is a good way of sticking it to the Microsoft executives, all of whom are still employed and getting paid millions of dollars. Also, this is a tech company we’re talking about. This isn’t Blackwater or some other military-industrial type company who makes their money off warfare and spilled blood.
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delta520 says:
18th January 2023 at 12:41 pm
I think the best way you can “screw Microsoft” is by not behaving like them or their ridiculous fanboys. I wouldn’t like it if MS fanboys started cheering when Sony employees get fired so why exactly would I behave like that towards them? But who gives an F what I think. You do you.
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Update18th Jan 2023 / 2:49 pm

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