Microsoft Lays Off Another 2,850 Employees From Its Nokia Acquisition, Totalling Over 30,000 So Far

News
By Lucian Armasu
published

Microsoft seems to be close to firing almost everyone it hired as part of the acquisition of Nokia in 2013. The company announced that it will lay off another 2,850 employees by the end of the year, in a recent SEC filing, after announcing multiple layoffs from this division over the past two years.

Back in 2013, Microsoft announced that it would acquire Nokia’s smartphone division for $7.2 billion, after a two year-long partnership between the two companies in which Nokia had to sell Windows smartphones exclusively.

However, Microsoft’s Windows Phone market share never reached more than a few percentage points globally, which means Nokia was also limited by the Microsoft operating system’s success due to the exclusivity deal. After the Nokia division acquisition completed in 2014, Microsoft announced that it would lay off 18,000 employees from the same division, in an effort to reduce redundancy.

After another year, in 2015, Microsoft announced that it would completely write off the Nokia acquisition (which totaled $7.6 billion by then). Microsoft would also lay off 7,800 employees, mostly from the Nokia division. That signaled that the company’s smartphone hardware division failed, so it didn’t make anymore sense to put more money into it.

Since then, Microsoft’s new CEO, Satya Nadella, seems to have downplayed Windows 10 Mobile’s potential. He also recently announced that the company is downgrading its Windows 10 user base goal of 1 billion installs by 2018, because the Windows 10 Mobile platform isn’t growing as fast as he thought it would.

Earlier this year, Microsoft let go of another 1,850 employees, also from the smartphone division. Now, the company announced that another 2,850 employees would be laid off from that division. Since the acquisition, Microsoft seems to have fired over 30,000 employees from Nokia’s former smartphone division, or about a quarter of Microsoft's total number of employees (currently at 114,000).

Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu
Lucian Armasu is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He covers software news and the issues surrounding privacy and security.
16 Comments Comment from the forums
  • Samer1970
    :( poor Nokia destroyed by Microsoft ....

    I hope That this was not their plan from the beginning. Just to Destroy The Finnish Company
    Reply
  • NoobSauce368
    I guess the Finnish Company is finished!
    Reply
  • Martell1977
    When it came time for a phone upgrade I really wanted to get a Windows 10 Phone because I really like my WP8.1 Nokia. The problem was that AT&T didn't have a single decent phone and there are compatibility issues like my Pioneer car HU wont connect to it, only apple and android.
    MS hasn't put much effort into expanding compatibility for devices like car bluetooth setups and their hardware is all low end.
    I can barely stand android, but ended up getting a Galaxy S7 anyways. Guess MS just gave up.
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    windows phones are about to get worse when MS updates them to make you use skype for everything messaging including texting. and their app store is almost as bad as blackberries
    Reply
  • falchard
    But with Windows Mobile, you can pretty much download any Apple iOS application if you have the know how. There is a site that converts popular Apple iOS applications into Windows UWP applications. Since it's not technically legal you can't get them on the store, but you do have that option now thanks to Microsoft's converters. If the application developers wanted Windows Mobile users money, they would have taken the couple minutes to convert it themselves. Things like Fallout Shelter and Pokemon Go are playable on Windows Mobile as a result. However, these are coming soon to Windows Mobile anyway. Steam is also now on Windows Mobile.

    In the grand scheme of things, it may be better that Microsoft is getting rid of their smart phone hardware arm. They have the Nokia Patents that allows them to get something like 15% of every smart phone sale. It also alienates any hardware partners they have to use Windows Mobile since they would be competing against Microsoft. Windows 10 Mobile has had more hardware partners than Windows Phone 8. There is also the fear that Microsoft is going to a closed platform similar to Apple. Spinning off some of their hardware should alleviate some of those fears.
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    18358328 said:
    But with Windows Mobile, you can pretty much download any Apple iOS application if you have the know how. There is a site that converts popular Apple iOS applications into Windows UWP applications. Since it's not technically legal you can't get them on the store, but you do have that option now thanks to Microsoft's converters. If the application developers wanted Windows Mobile users money, they would have taken the couple minutes to convert it themselves. Things like Fallout Shelter and Pokemon Go are playable on Windows Mobile as a result. However, these are coming soon to Windows Mobile anyway. Steam is also now on Windows Mobile.

    In the grand scheme of things, it may be better that Microsoft is getting rid of their smart phone hardware arm. They have the Nokia Patents that allows them to get something like 15% of every smart phone sale. It also alienates any hardware partners they have to use Windows Mobile since they would be competing against Microsoft. Windows 10 Mobile has had more hardware partners than Windows Phone 8. There is also the fear that Microsoft is going to a closed platform similar to Apple. Spinning off some of their hardware should alleviate some of those fears.

    the only people who would even know how to convert IOS apps would be computer geeks and developers and not the mainstream cellphone user. plus no doubt people would pirate the IOS app just to get a copy of it to convert. either way if you can't compete in the app would your Mobile OS is useless


    Reply
  • 10tacle
    18354058 said:
    :( poor Nokia destroyed by Microsoft ....I hope That this was not their plan from the beginning. Just to Destroy The Finnish Company

    Nokia destroyed themselves, chief. They were one of the leading global mobile phone makers of the late 90s to mid-00s alongside Motorola. However, they did not see the impending threat from Samsung, LG, and especially Apple. It was not Nokia that came out with the first "smart" phone as we know it today (that was Apple).

    Microsoft just poured more water into a sinking ship and dead business. Apparently MS just can't learn from the history of other failed acquisitions by corporations that sometimes have sunk said corporations themselves. You do NOT go outside your element. MS had no business getting into the mobile phone industry from day one. They thought they were going to make money and failed.

    Finally, I know of no company that spends money only to HOPE that the division the company bought out fails (to the tune of nearly $8 BILLION in this case). Nokia doesn't compete with Microsoft. That's ludicrous to even think about that MS would intentionally nuke Nokia. This was just an extremely poor management decision.


    Reply
  • sizzling
    Such a shame, Windows phone and 950XL are my favourite phone to date including multiple generations of iPhone and Galaxy. I think the media is partly to blame as MS actually tried a lot of good ideas but the media just kept pumping out "it's not apple" when in fact it was just as good, just different. There are things my 950XL does better than the wife's 6S but hey ho, the writings on the wall and I genuinely feel it is the public who will loose out by not having another competitor in the market.
    Reply
  • nikolajj
    18358598 said:
    Such a shame, Windows phone and 950XL are my favourite phone to date including multiple generations of iPhone and Galaxy. I think the media is partly to blame as MS actually tried a lot of good ideas but the media just kept pumping out "it's not apple" when in fact it was just as good, just different. There are things my 950XL does better than the wife's 6S but hey ho, the writings on the wall and I genuinely feel it is the public who will loose out by not having another competitor in the market.

    100% agree. It is my favorite OS by far, but public perception blocked it from a breakthrough.
    Reply
  • chalabam
    Microsoft tried to turn the PC into a phone, and failed. Nobody pays for a PC to get a phone, and nobody wants a Windows phone.
    Reply