Microsoft started laying off thousands of sales jobs worldwide

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Microsoft is laying off thousands of employees with the dismissal hitting those working in sales and located outside the United States the hardest as the tech company adjusts its operational focus.

The Redmond-based company confirmed that it began sending the layoff notices Thursday, but declined to provide further specifics except that thousands of sales jobs will be cut.

Microsoft's shares were down 0.7 percent to 68.63 US dollars on Thursday, according to Reuters.

People visit a Microsoft store in Paramus, New Jersey. /VCG Photo

“Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis,” Microsoft said in a statement. “This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re-deployment in others.”

Microsoft Corp. has about 121,500 employees worldwide. Nearly 71,600 of them work in the US, with the rest elsewhere.

The job cuts are part of Microsoft’s shift away from its traditional approach of licensing its Office software and other programs for a one-time fee tied to a single computer. The company is now focusing on selling recurring subscriptions for software accessible on multiple devices – a rapidly growing trend known as “cloud computing.”

Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft Corp. /VCG Photo

That part of Microsoft’s operations has been playing an increasingly important role, especially among corporate and government customers, since Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as the company’s CEO in 2014.

Microsoft’s “commercial cloud” segment is on a pace to generate about 15 billion US dollars in annual revenue. More than 26 million consumers subscribe to Microsoft’s Office 365 service that includes its Word, Excel and other popular programs. That number has more than doubled in the past two years.

Meanwhile, revenue from licensing of Microsoft’s Windows operating system has been rising by at most 5 percent in the past three quarters.

(Source: AP)