Reuters is reporting that Microsoft may cut more than 6,000 jobs in efforts to increase productivity and bring Nokia Oyj’s handset operation into the fold. Microsoft acquired Nokia’s devices and services business in April, discussing a name change for Oyj–which translates in Finnish as “Ltd.” In May, Nokia Windows phone apps began to be published under the name Microsoft Mobile Oy. Oy–the Yiddish word used “especially to express exasperation or dismay”– is sure to be on the lips of many Microsoft employees this week.
Microsoft has struggled to win a significant share of the booming device market. The company is moving ever more aggressively into cloud computing, a push solidified with former Microsoft cloud chief Satya Nadella taking over as CEO in February. A large portion of the cloud computing in the future will be done on mobile devices, say industry analysts. The cuts, according to Reuters, will be mostly a result of redundancies created by the Nokia acquisition. Microsoft last cut jobs in a big way in 2009, in the middle of the “great recession,” when it cut 5,800 positions.
