Microsoft lays off more employees amid weakness in PC market demand
Tech giant in July laid off a 'small number' of employees as part of a 'strategic alignment'
Microsoft has laid off more employees as the tech giant expects its revenue growth to slow down due to weakness in PC market demand.
"Like all companies, we evaluate our business priorities on a regular basis, and make structural adjustments accordingly," a Microsoft spokesperson told FOX Business. "We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the year ahead."
Sources told Axios, the first to report the story, that the cuts affected fewer than 1,000 employees across multiple divisions, staff levels and regions of the world.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSFT | MICROSOFT CORP. | 417.00 | +4.13 | +1.00% |
The move comes after the company let go of a "small number" of employees in July as part of a "strategic alignment." As of June 30, Microsoft had a total global workforce of 221,000 employees, including 122,000 in the U.S. and 99,000 internationally.
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Microsoft Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood warned on the company's fourth-quarter earnings call in July that it would "slow the rate of hiring to focus on key growth areas."
"Continued weakness in the PC market demand and advertising spend will impact Windows OEM, Surface, LinkedIn, and search and news advertising revenue," Hood added at the time.
A building on the Microsoft Headquarters campus is pictured July 17, 2014, in Redmond, Washington. (Stephen Brashear/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The company will report first-quarter earnings on Oct. 25.
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Other big tech firms that have laid off employees include Peloton, Snap Inc., Netflix and Coinbase.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PTON | PELOTON INTERACTIVE INC. | 9.54 | +0.48 | +5.30% |
| SNAP | SNAP INC. | 11.41 | +0.78 | +7.28% |
| NFLX | NETFLIX INC. | 897.79 | +0.31 | +0.03% |
| COIN | COINBASE GLOBAL INC. | 304.64 | +9.41 | +3.19% |
| LYFT | LYFT INC. | 16.79 | +0.50 | +3.07% |
| META | META PLATFORMS INC. | 559.14 | -3.95 | -0.70% |
| GOOGL | ALPHABET INC. | 164.76 | -2.87 | -1.71% |
| AAPL | APPLE INC. | 229.87 | +1.35 | +0.59% |
| SPOT | SPOTIFY TECHNOLOGY SA | 475.31 | +4.44 | +0.94% |
Meanwhile, tech companies that have paused or slowed hiring include Lyft, Meta Platforms, Google, Apple and Spotify.