Microsoft Plans to Lay Off Thousands of Employees, Primarily in Sales

Microsoft is planning to cut thousands of jobs in the coming months, primarily in its sales organization, as the company aims to consolidate sales roles to reduce the number of salespeople customers interact with, according to two people familiar with the plans.

The company is still determining the exact number of roles that will be cut and is aiming to finalize it by next month, when its next fiscal year begins, one of the people said. The eliminations follow an earlier round of layoffs at Microsoft in May that cut more than 6,000 roles, primarily in areas like engineering.

The planned layoffs come months after Microsoft announced an internal reorganization of its sales teams that would consolidate various roles. Sales chief Judson Althoff told employees in April that the company would reduce the number of different salespeople customers interact with.

For instance, customers of Azure previously interacted with different Microsoft salespeople responsible for selling product groups like “Core,” “Data and AI,” and “Innovation,” but all of those roles will now be consolidated into a single Azure salesperson, according to a current employee with direct knowledge of the changes, which will go into effect next month. A Microsoft spokesperson did not provide a comment.