Microsoft Corporation on Monday announced layoffs that will reportedly affect about 1,000 employees, writes UNN with reference to The Verge.
Details
As CNBC previously reported, one of the areas affected is the mixed reality division working on HoloLens 2. separately, Business Insider reported that Azure for Operations and Mission Engineering also had "hundreds" of employees cut.
Microsoft spokesman Craig Syncotta said in a statement sent to The Verge via email: "earlier today, we announced the restructuring of the Microsoft Mixed Reality organization. We remain fully committed to the Department of Defense'S IVAS program and will continue to provide cutting-edge technology to support our soldiers. In addition, we will continue to invest in W365 to embrace the broader Mixed Reality hardware ecosystem. We will continue to sell HoloLens 2 while supporting existing HoloLens 2 customers and partners.
This round of layoffs comes more than a year after Microsoft laid off more than 10,000 people, and CEO Satya Nadella said the company is changing its hardware portfolio. Microsoft has since closed a deal to acquire Activision Blizzard, invested heavily in artificial intelligence, and recently began promoting artificial intelligence computers with a new series of Surface devices based on Qualcomm chips.
"Organizational and personnel changes are a necessary and regular part of managing our business. We will continue to prioritize and invest in strategic growth areas for our future and in supporting our customers and partners," Cincotta said.
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In 2021, Microsoft created the Azure division for Operators and Mission Engineering to cover "the most successful projects," such as the Azure space division, which aims to work with companies like SpaceX and deploy a portable data center in a box. Other teams in the group are working on projects such as telecommunications support and work on quantum computing.