Seem like they are seeking for a one size fits all. You have power users and "what's a computer" generation growing up on phones, tablets, and Chromebooks.
Microsoft reportedly planning to lay off thousands of employees, mostly in sales by Usama Jawad
Back in May 2025, Microsoft decided to lay off 3% of its workforce, which amounted to roughly 6,000 employees. It claimed that this decision allowed it to implement better organizational changes in a "dynamic marketplace". Now, a new report claims that the Redmond tech firm is planning to lay off thousands more next month.
Citing unnamed sources, Bloomberg reports that as the company continues investing heavily in its AI ventures, it is about to announce layoffs of thousands of workers as early as next month. This reduction in workforce will primarily affect sales teams, but they won't be the only ones affected. That said, the sources did mention that the timing for this announcement may change.
This move, if true, won't be entirely surprising. In April 2025, Microsoft announced that it will be relying more on third-party firms to sell its software to small- and medium-sized customers. It's currently unclear how many employees will be impacted by this change, but even if the layoff percentage is in the single digits, it would still be significant as it would be impacting the professional careers of thousands.
The May 2025 layoffs primarily impacted engineering and product teams. The other major round of layoffs prior to this was the decision to eliminate 10,000 jobs back in January 2023. Those represented 5% of the total workforce at that time, with numerous teams, including the one leading Mixed Reality (MR) efforts, being heavily impacted.
It is interesting to note that if the timing of the announcement for layoffs is accurate, it would be soon after Microsoft closes its fiscal year at the end of June 2025. Although we'll get financial reports for the latest quarter soon after too, one has to wonder what the human cost of profit is, as Microsoft continues to report billions of dollars in revenue every quarter.
Source: Bloomberg (paywall)