Microsoft sacks 85% of staff in its mobile division

folarin okunola

July 31, 2015 9:02 AM

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, back in June, had said in a memo to all Nigerian employees that the company needed to make some “tough choices” in areas that were not working.

Microsoft had announced earlier in June that it would be laying off about 7,800 employees

Microsoft on Thursday sacked 34 (85 per cent) of the 40 employees of its phone division here in Nigeria, only hours after the company’s latest Windows 10 OS was made available in Nigeria and 189 other countries all over the world.

A report in the Punch newspapers says that employees at the Nigerian office were silent on the matter, but a source said that the downsizing was part of Microsoft's decision to globally streamline its phone division.

The newspaper also reports that the source said the sacking was in line with the massive layoff of workers “sweeping through the global offices of Microsoft’s phone division.”

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, back in June, had said in a memo to all Nigerian employees that the company needed to make some “tough choices” in areas that were not working after which the Nokia write down and subsequent layoffs began.

The memo had stated that 7,800 jobs would be cut from the mobile division.

folarin okunola