On Wednesday, Microsoft announced it would lay off another 2,850 employees, representing 2.5% of the company's total workforce, The Wall Street Journal writes. A company representative said that all employees being laid off have already been notified, and 900 people from the sales department have already been laid off. Some of the cuts will take place in Finland, and in particular will affect production in the Finnish city of Espoo, where the headquarters of Microsoft subsidiary Microsoft Mobile Oy is located.

Microsoft's annual report, published July 28 on the Securities and Exchange Commission website, states that "in addition to the 1,850 employee cuts announced in May 2016, approximately 2,850 additional jobs will be eliminated worldwide during the year." All reductions are expected to be completed by the end of fiscal year 2017 (ending June 30, 2017). The same document stated that the company would assume $950 million in restructuring costs.

Mass layoffs of Microsoft employees are largely due to the consequences of the acquisition of the Finnish mobile phone company Nokia in 2014 for $7.2 billion. At that time, the corporation was replenished with approximately 25,000 new employees, but in the same year its staff was reduced by 18,000 jobs, and in 2015 by another 7,800 people. As of June 30, 2016, Microsoft employed 114,000 people, of which 63,000 were in the United States, writes International Business Times.

The company said earlier that its revenue fell 9% over the past 12 months, but net profit rose 38% due to cost cuts in its smartphone division.

According to research company Gartner, in the first quarter of 2016, mobile phones with the Windows operating system accounted for 0.7% of the global smartphone market, while a year earlier their share was 2.5%. Smartphones based on Android and iOS accounted for 84 and 15% of devices sold in the first quarter, respectively.

Microsoft will cut staff again