Microsoft Lays Off 2,100 More Employees, Plans To Shut Silicon Valley Research Lab

Microsoft has pulled the trigger on the second wave of 18,000 job cuts it said it would be making in July, parting ways with some 2,100 employees, 747 of them based in Washington state.

A Microsoft spokesperson confirmed the job cuts in an email and said they're "spread across many different business units and many different countries."

Microsoft is apparently shutting down Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, a Mountain View, Calif.-based facility that's focused on distributed computing. The lab opened in August 2001 and employs more than 75 researchers, according to the Microsoft Research website.

Derek Murray, a researcher who works at Microsoft Research Silicon Valley, tweeted that the lab would be shutting down this Friday, Sept. 18.

Well, so long Microsoft Research Silicon Valley. It was nice while it lasted.

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We've asked Microsoft to comment on whether it plans to move the lab's distributed computing work to other Microsoft Research locations and will update this story if we hear back.

Related: Microsoft Reportedly Laying Off More Employees, Partners Expecting SMS&P Reorganization

It's not clear if the layoffs affected Microsoft's worldwide Small and Midmarket Solutions & Partners (SMS&P) division. That group has seen lots of turnover recently and is said to be ripe for consolidation, partners told CRN earlier this week.

The 18,000 job cuts are by far the largest in Microsoft's 39-year history, and 12,500 of them come from Microsoft's $7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was said to oppose the deal, which was led by his predecessor Steve Ballmer.

In a July memo to employees, Nadella said he wanted to reshape Microsoft's organizational structure with "fewer layers of management, both top down and sideways, to accelerate the flow of information and decision-making."

Nadella also said while Microsoft is cutting jobs in some areas, it will add employees "in certain other strategic areas." Cloud computing and big data are presumably at the top of this list given Microsoft's increasing focus on both.

Microsoft laid off around 13,000 employees in July and still intends to lay off about 2,900 more employees by the end of its fiscal year next June. Microsoft expects severance and other layoff-related costs to result in a $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion charge over its next four quarters.

"We will continue to go through this process in the most thoughtful manner possible, with the deepest respect for affected individuals and recognition of their service to the company. We will offer severance to all affected employees," the Microsoft spokesperson said in the email.

PUBLISHED SEPT. 19, 2014