Inside sources at Redmond have spoken of their concern that up to 13,000 jobs could be at risk, though Microsoft is yet to make any kind of announcement on possible redundancies following its takeover of Nokia.
Nokia was bought out by Microsoft a couple of months ago now for a pretty significant $7.2 billion sum. However, despite the fact that close to 25,000 new workers joined Redmond’s ranks and that things haven’t been going ideally, the company is yet to make clear whether any jobs are at risk and how many.
A new report from GigaOM suggests that employees working for both Microsoft and its new Nokia arm remain hugely concerned as to how secure or otherwise their jobs are.
“Look, Steve Ballmer buys Nokia and adds 25,000 people and a business that makes no money, so do the math,” the report quotes an unnamed Microsoft ‘insider’ as saying.
Prior to his departure, Ballmer did make it clear that the takeover would involve a great deal of departmental integration, which in the world of big business is something of a byword for inevitable redundancies.
“Finance, Legal, HR, Communications, DX / Evangelism, Customer Care and Business Development will integrate functionally at Microsoft,” wrote Ballmer in an email last fall.
“Sourcing, customer logistics and supply chain will be part of Stephen’s Devices organization. ICM / IT will also integrate functionally for traditional IT roles.”
No official comment has yet been issued by Microsoft as to the likelihood of layoffs, but company insiders are speculating that up to 10% of the entire combined workforce could be facing the boot. With over 127,000 employees now on the Redmond payroll, this equates to near 13,000 potential job cuts.