Microsoft Corp. appears to be the latest tech giant to wield a big ax: The company is preparing to chop thousands of jobs in engineering and human resources, according to published reports Tuesday.
The software giant MSFT, +0.47% could slash about 5% of its workforce, or about 11,000 roles, U.K broadcaster Sky News reported, citing sources.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg News reported an unspecified number of layoffs will be announced in Microsoft’s engineering divisions on Wednesday, and they will be “significantly larger” than the 1% cut to Microsoft’s workforce last year.
The reported layoffs would be the latest in the U.S. technology sector, where companies including Salesforce Inc. CRM, -0.70%, Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. META, -1.18%, Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, -2.11%, Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO, -1.64%, Intel Corp. INTC, -1.69%, HP Inc. HPQ, -1.15%, Coinbase Global Inc. COIN, +8.32%, and Snap Inc. SNAP, -1.33% have announced major cuts across the board because of slackening sales.
“We are forecasting another 5% to 10% headcount cut across the tech sector as many of these tech names were spending money like 1980s Rock Stars and now need to reign in the expense controls ahead of a soft macro,” Dan Ives, tech analyst at Wedbush Securities, tweeted late Tuesday.
Microsoft, which is scheduled to report quarterly results on Jan. 24, declined comment on the reports.
Shares of Microsoft were flat in extended trading Tuesday.