Microsoft – To cut 7,800 jobs

Microsoft Corp. plans to cut as many as 7,800 jobs and write down about $7.6 billion on its Nokia phone-handset unit, wiping out nearly the entire value of a business that failed to gain market share since it was acquired last year.

The company also will record a restructuring charge of about $750 million to $850 million for the reorganization under Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a statement Wednesday. Microsoft had about 120,000 employees at the end of March.

Nadella is scaling back its mobile ambitions, seeking to tailor Windows devices for a narrower set of customers, instead of trying to sell as many mobile phones as possible in a market dominated by Apple Inc. and Google Inc.

The latest round of job cuts — which include 2,300 in Finland, where Nokia is based — come a year after Microsoft said it would let go of 18,000 employees, and less than two weeks after the company announced plans to exit the Web display advertising business. Since becoming CEO last year, Nadella has been acquiring mobile and cloud software makers, and cutting units not central to his strategy.

Chosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor. Read the whole story at  Microsoft to Cut Jobs, Take $7.6 Billion Writedown on Nokia – Bloomberg Business.