RALEIGH – Microsoft will reduce its workforce by 10,000, according to a disclosure filed with the SEC on Wednesday.
The company also announced the moves in an email sent by CEO Satya Nadella to employees on Wednesday morning. Multiple media outlets reported that the company could announce a round of layoffs on Wednesday, including WRAL TechWire.
In the filing and in the email, Microsoft outlined “a series of actions it is taking in response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities.”
That includes a workforce reduction of about 10,000 workers which will take place by the end of the third fiscal quarter of 2023, the company noted.
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Microsoft may also seek to consolidate its real estate footprint and make changes in its hardware portfolio, the disclosure noted.
In the email sent by Nadella on Wednesday, under the subject “Focusing on our short- and long-term opportunity,” he outlined three changes the company will make.
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Layoffs at Microsoft
First, wrote Nadella, Microsoft will “align our cost structure with our revenue and where we see customer demand.”
That starts today, wrote Nadella, with changes the company will make that “will result in the reduction of our overall workforce by 10,000 jobs through the end of FY23 Q3.”
That mark is “less than 5 percent of our total employee base,” and some workers received notice of layoffs today.
Still, the company continues to hire, including for 29 openings in the Triangle. And the company will still hire, said Nadella, writing “while we are eliminating roles in some areas, we will continue to hire in key strategic areas.”
Second, Nadella wrote that the company will be “allocating both our capital and talent to areas of secular growth and long-term competitiveness for the company, while divesting in other areas.”
In the conclusion of Nadella’s email, he wrote that the third priority for the company is treating its people “with dignity and respect, and act transparently.”
Nadella called these “hard choices” and the decisions “difficult, but necessary.”
Affected workers will receive severance pay, 60-days notice prior to termination, continued vesting of stock awards for six months, career transition services, and continuing healthcare coverage for six months.
To make these moves, Nadella said that the company would take a $1.2 billion charge in the second quarter “related to severance costs, changing our hardware portfolio, and the cost of lease consolidation as we create higher density across our workspaces.”
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Impact on NC workers?
Microsoft has two North Carolina offices, one in Charlotte, and one in Morrisville. The company had agreed to a deal with the State of North Carolina for economic development, but requested to terminate that agreement in March 2022.
According to its website, both office locations are corporate sales offices.
Map of Microsoft Office Locations in North Carolina. (Screenshot)
The company has not yet responded to multiple requests for comment regarding whether layoffs and worker reductions would impact jobs and workers in North Carolina.
