Report: Microsoft Planning Additional Layoffs

TechFlash

Quoting sources familiar with the matter, TechFlash said the layoffs won't be nearly as large as last year's job cuts, in which Microsoft parted ways with more than 5,000 employees over the course of the year.

Microsoft didn't respond to a request for comment on the rumored layoffs or what divisions they might affect. The company will report its fourth quarter and annual earnings on July 22.

Microsoft's fiscal 2010 year ended on June 30, and the company has a history of shaking things up organizationally this time of year. This year, the changes have directly impacted the channel.

On July 1, Allison Watson, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group, took over as corporate vice president of the Business & Marketing Organization in the U.S. Jon Roskill, who previously held this position, assumed Watson' role as Microsoft's worldwide channel chief.

Last year's layoffs were the largest in Microsoft's history, and mainly affected the company's sales and marketing teams as well as the Flight Simulator, Office Accounting, and Premium Mobile Experiences (PMX) divisions. Microsoft originally said it planned to cut 5000 jobs but ended up surpassing that figure by at least several hundred employees, in another sign of the PC and server annus horribilis that was 2009.

PMX is where much of talent from Microsoft's $500 million acquisition of Danger ended up, and the division that developed Microsoft's now-defunct Kin phones. On the anonymously-authored blog Mini Microsoft, much of the feedback focuses on the need for cuts in the PMX division.

"I for one can't believe that no one has been axed over the Kin debacle. Billions of dollars were wasted, not to mention all of the smart people over there who spent 3 years with no return on the investment," wrote one poster.