Daily Mail

Shake-up at Microsoft puts thousands of jobs at threat

- by Matt Oliver

THOUSANDS of jobs at Microsoft were last night put under threat following the announceme­nt of a major restructur­e.

The tech giant, which employs more than 121,000 people globally, would not confirm how many British staff were affected but it is understood thousands of jobs could be at risk, largely outside the US.

It is part of the company’s shift towards selling so- called cloud-based services, where software and data is stored on the internet. The move is a bid to take on Amazon, which offers cloud computing services.

A spokesman said changes would help Microsoft to serve customers and partners better.

She added: ‘We are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under considerat­ion or that their positions will be eliminated.’

Rumours swirled this week as nervous staff exchanged messages on a messaging app.

Their fears came after conference rooms were reportedly booked up across the business, with managers scheduling a series of short meetings with company employees.

The company is said to have told workers on Monday that it planned a major shake-up to its sales and marketing teams.

It was not clear yesterday how many of the company’s 3,000strong British workforce face the chop.

The company’s first headquarte­rs outside the US was founded in Reading, and it has offices in London, Edinburgh and Manchester, as well as a research facility in Cambridge.

Microsoft is reposition­ing itself as a provider of services rather than traditiona­l CD-based software but it is lagging behind Amazon, which makes about £11.3bn a year from cloud computing. Microsoft said its cloud services made £5.3bn.

It is also battling to seize a greater share of the mobile market from Google and Apple.

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United Kingdom