Microsoft cuts 7,800 jobs

(Image credit: Getty Images)

published 8 July 2015

Microsoft announced another round of layoffs Wednesday, cutting another 7,800 jobs just one year after laying off 18,000 employees from its workforce. The cuts, which comprise more than 6 percent of the company's total workforce, are part of Microsoft's overhaul of its struggling phone business. In yet another acknowledgement of just how badly its smartphone business has been faring, Microsoft will also take a $7.6 billion impairment charge for its acquisition of Nokia's handset business, which it bought in 2014 for $7.9 billion.

Industry insiders had long been expecting Microsoft to make an announcement along these lines. In the company's last quarter, it "spent $1.8 billion to sell $1.4 billion of phones," Business Insider reports, losing roughly 12 cents on every phone sold. USA Today reports that, since the company's announcement on Wednesday morning, shares of Microsoft are already up more than 1 percent.