Microsoft Expected To Announce Major Layoffs, Including Xbox EU Marketing

The technology game is certainly a scary one and even the big companies like Microsoft are not immune at times. According to a report from Bloomberg, Microsoft is planning to make its largest batch of layoffs in five years, one that will include the Xbox EU marketing staff.

The layoffs generally will be focused in the Nokia segment and other areas that overlap with that department, along with marketing and engineering at Microsoft. Bloomberg reports that it could possibly involve even more layoffs than the 5,800 we saw back in 2009 across all of Microsoft.

The article particularly mentions that some of the cuts are expected to come from the global Xbox marketing team, which would involve the European Xbox Team that is based in the UK. Microsoft at the time of the article’s posting had 127,104 employees, with 30,000 having been added with the acquisition of Nokia last September. This is certainly quite the quick turnaround to layoff a lot of the employees from the department that was just acquired not too long ago.

Luckily, it sounds like the Xbox division won’t be hit too hard, with the Xbox EU marketing staff potentially being hit the hardest. Microsoft hasn’t confirmed anything yet, but Bloomberg expects an announcement sometime this week.