Microsoft to lay off 9.0% of its gaming staff

Shares of Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) are in the green this morning after the tech behemoth announced plans of cutting some 9.0% of its gaming workforce.

How many employees will be affected?

The multinational currently has a total of 22,000 employees in its gaming division. Of those, roughly 1,900 will be let go, it announced in a memo on Thursday.

Note that the announcement arrives only months after Microsoft Corp completed its $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard.

Phil Spencer – its gaming head attributed the job cut to “a larger execution plan” that he’s convinced will help minimise “areas of overlap”.  

Microsoft is scheduled to report its Q2 financial results on January 30^th. Consensus is for it to earn $2.76 a share versus $2.32 per share a year ago.

Tech workers’ layoffs continue in 2024

Microsoft is yet to comment on the layoffs it announced today. What’s already known, however, is that it will offer “full support” to those that are being let go, as per its memo on Thursday.

Tech companies are continuing to cut jobs this year after laying off well over 100,000 workers in 2023. Just days earlier, eCommerce giant eBay Inc said it will lower its headcount by some 9.0%.

Also on Thursday, Mike Ybarra – the former president of Blizzard announced his departure from Microsoft Corp and Blizzard.

Wall Street currently has a consensus “buy” rating on $MSFT that has already rallied a whopping 70% over the past 52-weeks to become a $3.0 trillion company.