Microsoft lays off about 1,000 employees

Microsoft confirmed on Tuesday that it will lay off about 1,000 employees.

It wasn’t confirmed if the layoffs were limited to the games division, but employees working at Xbox and other Microsoft-owned studios said they were being laid off, The Washington Post reported. Axios first reported job cuts on Monday night.

Microsoft declined to disclose whether any employees based in the Seattle area were affected by the layoffs, but one Microsoft employee who tweeted about the layoffs said he worked at the Redmond campus. rice field. A company spokesperson said in a statement that Microsoft will make structural adjustments as needed.

“Like all companies, we regularly assess our business priorities,” a spokesperson said. “We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas.”

This is the second layoff of the year at Redmond-based Microsoft. The first was before the annual results announcement in July, when the company cut headcount due to restructuring. And since May, Microsoft has delayed hiring due to a weakening economy, with layoffs in July spanning multiple groups, including consulting, customers and partners and his solutions. Joined tech giant Meta and his Google in slow adoption.

The company’s workforce is still growing overall. Microsoft has 221,000 employees as of June 30, compared to 181,000 last year.

Microsoft is in the process of acquiring video game maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, pending UK regulatory approval. Microsoft is also the maker of his Xbox and owns other studios such as ZeniMax Media subsidiary Bethesda. The company acquired ZeniMax last year for $7.5 billion in cash.

The company revealed in an August antitrust filing that Sony’s PlayStation 4 sold twice as much as the Xbox One.

The gaming industry has been hit hard by the pandemic, but video game companies such as Nintendo, which is based in Redmond and has operations in the United States, have reported lower earnings this year.

Microsoft fell short of its targets in its fourth-quarter earnings report and lowered its earnings forecasts. The company blames macroeconomic challenges such as a strong dollar, the ongoing war in Ukraine, and a manufacturing halt in China that has weighed on PC production.

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