Microsoft reportedly laying off staff

More cuts across the board at Microsoft, according to reports

American tech giant Microsoft is reportedly going through the process of laying off a small amount of staff in its corporate offices around the world.

According to technology website Petri, the company has just completed a "small round" of layoffs affecting the corporate side of its business - and this has happened in multiple regions.

Brad Sams, a technology writer at the website, claims that the firm has cut staff in a range of departments. However, employees working in the Windows and Devices Group were impacted the most.

"While I don't know the exact distribution of the cuts, based on evidence sent to me, it looks like the WDG (Windows and Devices Group) was impacted at a higher rate than other orgs inside Microsoft," he said.

It's thought that the firm culled staff in a plethora of product-related groups, including Bing. Although Microsoft hasn't released a statement on the job cuts, it reportedly confirmed the news to Sams.

"That being said, individual staff were cut from several different product groups including Bing, some of the tooling teams, and a few other operational areas as well," he wrote.

"When I reached out to Microsoft about the layoffs, they confirmed that the cuts did occur today but did not provide any additional information."

There isn't an exact figure here, but it's estimated to be in the hundreds. Sams reported: "As for the size of the cuts, while I don't know the exact figure, think in the hundreds, not in the thousands.

"Considering the company has over 100,000 employees, this is a minor cut when compared to the thousands who have been let go in previous rounds."

It's not unusual to see large companies making these cuts, especially if they hire tens of thousands of staff around the world. And Microsoft certainly isn't new to this.

Last year, a report from the Wall Street Journal suggested that the company is working on plans to lay off "thousands" of staff as it invests more in the cloud.

Sams added: "Even though Microsoft has had several rounds of cuts the past few years, I don't believe that this a larger trend for the future of the company.

"Microsoft has successfully shifted to a cloud-first world for its corporate customers and its operational alignment with that strategy is constantly evolving."