Microsoft to axe 8,000 staff

Cuts will come mainly from Microsoft's phone business as the company restructures the unit

Microsoft has announced it will cut nearly 8,000 staff, primarily from its phone business, confirming reports which were published this morning.

Some 7,800 positions will go across Microsoft globally in the next few months, with most of them coming from the phone business. The latest round of cuts is on top of the tranche announced this time a year ago which saw 18,000 staff lose their jobs.

As part of this lot of layoffs, Microsoft will record a $7.6bn (£4.95bn) impairment charge in addition to restructuring costs that will range between $750m and $850m.

Microsoft's chief executive, Satya Nadella, told staff in an email that he does not take decisions like this lightly and that he is "deeply committed to helping our team members through these transitions".

He said: "I deeply appreciate all of the ideas and hard work of everyone involved in these businesses, and I want to reiterate my commitment to helping each individual impacted."

Nadella said the changes in Microsoft's phone business do not signal the company moving away from making first-party devices.

"I am committed to our first-party devices including phones," he insisted. "However, we need to focus our phone efforts in the near term while driving reinvention. We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem that includes our first-party device family."