Microsoft to cut 2,850 additional Jobs

Microsoft is cutting additional 2,850 jobs from its smartphone hardware and global sales divisions, the company said in a regulatory filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

It noted the company had announced in May it was cutting 1,850 jobs and that the new cuts were "an extension of the earlier plan."

In total, Microsoft will cut 4,700 jobs worldwide by the end of the company’s fiscal year 2017 and the job cuts will mainly target its smartphone hardware business and global sales unit.

Part of Microsoft's strategy "involves focusing our phone devices on a narrower range of customer categories and differentiating through the combination of hardware and software we are uniquely positioned to offer," the filing said.

"As anticipated, our change in phone strategy resulted in a reduction in units sold and associated expenses in the fiscal year 2016, and this trend is expected to continue in the fiscal year 2017."

Microsoft purchased Nokia in 2013 in a bid to get a leg up on mobile. Nokia was the world's leading mobile phone maker from 1998 until 2011 when it bet on Microsoft's Windows mobile platform which proved to be a flop.

The Finnish company sold its unprofitable handset unit in 2014 for some $7.2 billion to Microsoft, which is closing the entire unit.