Microsoft planning major job cuts, Nokia and Xbox staff face axe

Redmond staff to likely to learn fate next week

Microsoft is said to be planning major layoffs as it enters the start of its next financial year, according to reports, as it looks to trim down its massive headcount.

Bloomberg reported that Microsoft will make the cuts in a number of divisions, mostly where roles are overlapping from its acquisition of Nokia, such as around sales and marketing, with the cuts also likely to hit its Xbox division.

Currently the firm's headcount stands at a whopping 127,104 and it is clear new CEO Satya Nadella wants to reduce this. On Friday, in a company-wide email that was made public, he said he wanted to improve operational efficiency at the firm.

"Every team across Microsoft must find ways to simplify and move faster, more efficiently. We will increase the fluidity of information and ideas by taking actions to flatten the organisation and develop leaner business processes," he said in the memo.

"To this end, I've asked each member of the Senior Leadership Team to evaluate opportunities to advance their innovation processes and simplify their operations and how they work."

Many saw this as a sign that job cuts would come, as Microsoft has been criticised in the past for having too many layers of management, often stifling innovative projects and causing the firm to fall behind rivals such as Apple and Google.

V3 contacted Microsoft for comment on the rumours. It replied: "Microsoft does not comment on rumour or speculation."

Microsoft will unveil its fourth quarter and end-of-year fiscal 2014 results next Tuesday, which is when any job cuts will almost certainly be announced.