Report: Microsoft to announce biggest round of job cuts in five years

Recently acquired Nokia division said to be hit hardest - but marketing and engineering also in the firing line

Microsoft is planning its biggest round of job cuts in five years this week, according to Bloomberg.

The news - leaked by "people with knowledge of the company's plans" - follows internal communications sent around the company by CEO Satya Nadella last week that spoke of "engineering and organisation changes we believe are needed".

Microsoft currently employs 127,104 people - far more than Google or Apple - and the cuts, should they happen, are said to be in excess of 5,800 roles. The company's last layoffs were in 2009.

The mobile phone division, which swallowed Nokia after the company's acquisition last year, is thought to be the main target for redundancy. The Nokia intake added 30,000 employees to the company.

At the same time, Microsoft agreed to make $600m in annual cost savings in the first 18 months after the acquisition deal closed. With so much overlap between Nokia and Microsoft's existing mobile phone division, it seems a likely solution.

Bloomberg's sources stated that cuts will also take place in marketing departments for some other areas of the business, such as the global Xbox team, the European arm of which is based in Reading.

With Nadella also mentioning "engineering", it's conceivable that engineering teams may be for the chop. Microsoft's move into cloud, for one thing, should give more developers the power to test their own software, rather than relying on a testing team.