Microsoft looking to reorganize its sales force with thousands of layoffs- Report

In a bid to streamline its cloud-computing offerings, Microsoft is planning a major global sales reorganization that is likely to result in thousands of layoffs, reports Bloomberg and The Seattle Times.

According to the reports, the layoffs are related to a move to increase the emphasis on cloud services within the company and the changes could be “some of the most significant in the sales force in years.”

Apparently, the rejig could include an organizational merger that involves its enterprise customer unit and one or more of its SME-focused divisions. The reason behind the said changes dates back to the exit of longtime chief operating officer Kevin Turner and coming in of Judson Althoff last year.

Althoff, notably, has always been vocal in his criticism of previous sales approaches, and he is keen to make Azure a central part of the focus. For years, the company’s sales force has been selling software for use on desktops and servers but now, Redmond company wants to shift the focus of customers on cloud services hosted in Microsoft’s datacenters to add more revenue and catch cloud market leader Amazon.com Inc.

The reports of layoffs also fall in line with the previous trend of Microsoft announcing headcount reductions at the end of its fiscal year that typically falls in July.

In 2016, Microsoft announced that it would cut 2,850 jobs — including at least 900 from its sales group, according to The Seattle Times. In July 2015, it made 7,800 job cuts and wrote down $7.6 billion of its Nokia acquisition.