Many tech companies have downsized, reorganized, initiated hiring freezes and laid off employees in recent months, primarily due to the recent economic downturn. These include Calm, which reduced its workforce by 20%, Snap with a similar figure, Twilio and more. Meta and Google have also been aggressively reshuffling their teams, with the former even indicating that the reduction will take place next year.

Following layoffs a couple of months ago, Microsoft has now confirmed a broader layoff reportedly affecting roughly 1,000 employees across multiple divisions.

An Axios report revealed this news, citing an anonymous person familiar with the matter. Microsoft soon confirmed the layoffs to CNBC, saying that:

Like all companies, we regularly assess our business priorities and make structural adjustments accordingly. We will continue to invest in our business and hire in key growth areas in the coming year.

The move is said to affect nearly 1,000 employees across various divisions, including Xbox, Azure, and more, but Microsoft hasn’t confirmed this figure. Multiple veteran Microsoft employees, including on Twitter, including KC Lemson (Group Product Manager) Y Greg Chapman (Principal Architect at Azure working on gaming initiatives) they have already revealed that they are among those laid off.

While layoffs are sometimes unavoidable and there’s nothing you can do but sympathize with those affected, it certainly creates bad optics when you lay off a thousand people while acquiring a game company for $70 billion during an economic downturn.

Source: Axios, CNBC