Microsoft has officially announced that it will lay off 18,000 people in the next year, with about 12,500 employees being sacked in a newly acquired Nokia Equipment and services Division in April this year.
What needs to be pointed out is. The number of layoffs accounted for 14% of the company's global 12多万名 workforce. At the same time, it was the largest layoffs in Microsoft's 39-year history. Microsoft said the layoffs were mainly aimed at streamlining and consolidating the company's business after acquiring Nokia's equipment and services.
local time Thursday, Microsoft CEO Satya-Satya Nadella in the title "Start to adjust our Organization and culture" (starting to Evolve our Organization and Culture) for the first time, the news was politely announced to Microsoft employees. In a memo, Nadra said the layoffs would allow for further streamlining of work within the company, ensuring flexibility and high-speed regulation of policy implementation.
However, no matter how high-sounding the official rhetoric is, it is a staggering figure to lay off 18,000 people in a sudden.
However. While the workers and their families will be troubled by the cuts, it does not mean that the company is in a serious crisis. On the contrary, making such a difficult decision may even bring great benefits to Microsoft in the long run.
"I felt a bit sad when I heard the news. But I believe that Microsoft must have enough reason to make this decision. "J.P Gownder, vice president and chief research analyst at GAUDL, a market research organization, said.
In fact, when Microsoft bought the Nokia Equipment and services business unit for $7.2 billion last September, it formally received 25,000 employees from Nokia's mobile phone division when it finished its acquisition this April. The company has long faded from the former phone King's aura. and replaced by later people like Samsung and Apple. And. Microsoft's acquisition of the Nokia Devices and services business unit was not intended for the Nokia brand, but to further control the devices that carry the Windows Phone operating system and expand its market share in this way.
It is clear that Microsoft is certainly not a key factor in reaching its strategic goals for all 25,000 employees in the Nokia mobile sector. According to GAUDL analysis, this large-scale layoffs is probably the decision that Barnard had already planned.
"It's not an easy job to cut out redundant workers on such a large scale, and I'm sure it's something that Microsoft has decided to do in the early days of the acquisition of Nokia."
"Gaudl said.
After a massive downsizing of the company's staffing structure. Nadra believes Microsoft will be better able to have a positive confrontation with companies such as Apple and Google (Weibo) in the smartphone sector.
But layoffs do not mean that Microsoft has conquered all the problems it faces. Because of the need to solve a lot of other problems, the ability to truly gain a foothold in the smartphone market. For example, Microsoft has previously launched a Nokia device with an Android operating system. And hope to attract many other consumers through this strategy, but now the strategy has been completely abandoned. Instead, Nadra is still looking to the Windows Phone operating system to broaden Microsoft's path to smartphones.
In this respect, gaudl that this is not an easy goal to achieve. Due to the application of the ecosystem environment is not yet intact.
"Almost all of the new apps will launch their iOS or Android version numbers, but they won't first advertise the Windows Phone version number, and some apps even give up the platform, which is a huge disadvantage for the platform." "Gaudl added.
At the same time, Gaudl warned that he should not overlook the other collateral damage caused by such large-scale layoffs.
"I think the layoffs will make Microsoft lose the wealth of talent that it has not yet fully recognized. It can also have a huge impact on the morale of the company's employees. In order to avoid the company further farinose. Nadra should clearly tell employees that "while this is an unprecedented change, it does not mean that this is the way forward for the company's future change." I hope that this layoff is a decision made by Microsoft after careful deliberation, and that this is the only big change.
Of course, such layoffs will certainly come at a huge price, but they will allow businesses to survive and thrive.
"Gaudl finally said.
Was Microsoft determined to lay off its jobs at the start of Nokia's acquisition?