Microsoft Again Lays Off 200 More Employees From Consumer R&D Team: Report

Last month, Satya Nadella-run Microsoft became the first tech giant to lay off employees as part of a 'realignment'

Microsoft, which laid off 1 per cent or 1,800 employees in July because of economic slowdown, has asked around 200 more employees to go, this time from one of its customer-focused R&D projects, according to some media reports.

According to posts on Microsoft-owned LinkedIn, the recent lay-offs have also impacted contracted recruiters across several locations.

A Business Insider report first mentioned that the additional job cuts were concentrated in Microsoft's Modern Life Experiences (MLX) group, which was put together in 2018 with the goal of "winning back consumers".

"Around 200 employees on the Modern Life Experiences team have been told to find another position at the company within 60 days, or take severance," the report claimed. A company spokesperson declined to provide details to TechCrunch, but "didn't deny that the lay-offs had occurred".

The Modern Life Experiences team was focused on "bringing consumer products directly to the people who need them, empowering families to learn, explore and connect in a fun and safe environment."

The MLS team later partnered Microsoft's Family Safety group to build the first version of the Family Safety apps for iOS and Android, according to reports.

In June 2020, the MLX group launched Money in Excel, a template that let users automatically connect bank, credit card, investment, and loan accounts to Excel. "Money in Excel" is scheduled to shut down on June 30, 2023.

Last month, Satya Nadella-run Microsoft became the first tech giant to lay off employees as part of a "realignment". The lay-offs at Microsoft affected nearly 1 per cent of its 1,80,000-strong workforce across its offices and product divisions.

Microsoft has also slowed hiring in the Windows, Teams, and Office groups, according to the report.

Recently, Snapchat was planning to lay off a number of its employees, after the company declared a fall in its profits in the second quarter of the current calendar year (Q2CY22). The net loss of the American social media firm widened to $422 million in Q2CY22 from $152 million in the same quarter in 2021.

Other tech firms that have either laid off employees or slowed hiring in the current economic downturn include Google, Meta, Oracle, Twitter, Nvidia, Snap, Uber, Spotify, Intel, and Salesforce, among others.

The US tech major reported strong earnings in its third quarter, with a 26 per cent jump (year-on-year) in Cloud revenue and overall revenue of $49.4 billion. However, last month, the company revised its Q4 revenue and earnings guidance downward.