logo
Microsoft announces another mass layoff, thousands of workers affected

Microsoft announces another mass layoff, thousands of workers affected

Yahooa day ago
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft is firing thousands of workers, its second mass layoff in months.
The tech giant began sending out layoff notices Wednesday.
The company declined to say how many people would be laid off but said that it will comprise less than 4% of the workforce it had a year ago.
Microsoft said the cuts will affect multiple teams around the world, including its sales division and its Xbox video game business.
'We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company and teams for success in a dynamic marketplace,' it said in a statement.
Microsoft employed 228,000 full-time workers as of last June, the last time it reported its annual headcount. The company said Wednesday that its latest layoffs would cut close to 4% of that workforce, which would be about 9,000 people. But it has already had at least three layoffs this year.
Until now, at least, the biggest was in May, when Microsoft began laying off about 6,000 workers, nearly 3% of its global workforce and its largest job cuts in more than two years as the company spent heavily on artificial intelligence.
Microsoft also cut another 300 workers based out of its Redmond, Washington headquarters in June, on top of nearly 2,000 who lost their jobs in the Puget Sound region in May, according to notices it sent to Washington state employment officials.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Cluely's ARR doubled in a week to $7M, founder Roy Lee says. But rivals are coming.
Cluely's ARR doubled in a week to $7M, founder Roy Lee says. But rivals are coming.

Yahoo

time26 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Cluely's ARR doubled in a week to $7M, founder Roy Lee says. But rivals are coming.

Cluely's revenue has skyrocketed to about $7 million in ARR since it launched its new enterprise product a week ago, founder Roy Lee told TechCrunch. 'Every single person who has a meeting or an interview is testing this out.' Cluely, one of Silicon Valley's most-talked-about startups, offers products that use AI to analyze online conversations, deliver real-time notes, provide context, and suggest questions to ask. This information appeared discreetly on the user's screen, invisible to others. For weeks leading up to the product reveal, Lee boasted that the company's annual recurring revenue (ARR) exceeded $3 million and that the startup was profitable. The increase in interest is coming from consumers and businesses alike, he said. Cluely is a startup born of controversy after Lee posted in a viral X thread saying he was suspended by Columbia University because he and a co-founder developed a tool to cheat on job interviews for software engineers. He turned around and created a product and startup out of the tech, originally using the marketing tagline that it helps you 'cheat on everything.' Now that it is backed by big-league VCs like Andreessen Horowitz, Abstract Ventures, and Susa Ventures, it has toned down its marketing to 'Everything You Need. Before You Ask. … This feels like cheating.' It has turned into a Silicon Valley sensation from its rage-bait marketing. But the startup's controversial history hasn't stopped businesses from showing interest in Cluely's product, Lee insists, telling us that it has signed a public company that just this week doubled its annual contract with Cluely to $2.5 million. Lee declined to name the company. The enterprise version of the product is similar to the consumer offering, but it comes with some extra features such as team management and additional security settings, Lee said. Business use cases include sales calls, customer support, and remote tutoring. Which Cluely features are the most interesting to customers? According to Lee, it's Cluely's ability to take real-time notes. 'Meeting notes have been a proven very sticky, very interesting AI use case. The only problem with them is they're all post-call,' Lee said of competitors' products. 'You want to look back at them in the middle of a meeting, and that is what we offer.' However, Cluely's real-time notetaker may be easy to replicate. On Thursday, Pickle, a company that describes itself as a digital clone factory, claimed on X that it built Glass, an open source, free product with very similar functionality to Cluely. By mid-day it had already garnered over 850 stars and been forked nearly 150 times — indicating that the open source developer community is giving this free version a try. Time will tell if Cluely's meteoric rise can withstand competition from free copycat products like Glass. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Slate Auto drops ‘under $20,000' pricing after Trump administration ends federal EV tax credit
Slate Auto drops ‘under $20,000' pricing after Trump administration ends federal EV tax credit

Yahoo

time26 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Slate Auto drops ‘under $20,000' pricing after Trump administration ends federal EV tax credit

Slate Auto, the electric vehicle startup backed by Jeff Bezos, has stopped promoting that its upcoming pickup truck will start 'under $20,000' following passage of President Trump's tax cut bill. The bill, which is expected to be signed into law by Trump on July 4, will cause the federal EV tax credit to end in September — a $7,500 incentive that Slate had counted on to help its all-electric pickup clear that mark. When Slate came out of stealth mode in April, the startup heavily promoted that its all-electric pickup would start at 'under $20,000' with the $7,500 federal EV tax credit. That language was still on Slate's website as recently as yesterday according to the Web Archive. The change is a potential blow to the young company's attempt to make a radically affordable electric vehicle. Slate didn't provide a precise price for the EV at its launch event; and it has yet to say what the actual starting price of its vehicle will be, sans-credit. A Slate spokesperson declined to comment on the change. The company won't start building the truck until the end of 2026 at the earliest. Slate's business is also built around making this vehicle highly customizable, which means it's possible that few people will buy the base model to begin with. The sub-$20,000 price had been a big attraction point for the brand new company's product, and it was a major focus following its April launch event. The auto industry has 'driven prices to a place that most Americans simply can't afford,' chief commercial officer Jeremy Snyder said during the event. 'But we're here to change that.' 'We are building the affordable vehicle that has long been promised but never been delivered,' CEO Chris Barman added at the time. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Microsoft layoffs hit 830 workers in home state of Washington
Microsoft layoffs hit 830 workers in home state of Washington

CNBC

time28 minutes ago

  • CNBC

Microsoft layoffs hit 830 workers in home state of Washington

Among the thousands of Microsoft employees who lost their jobs in the cutbacks announced this week were 830 staffers in the company's home state of Washington. Nearly a dozen game design workers in the state were part of the layoffs, along with three audio designers, two mechanical engineers, one optical engineer and one lab technician, according to a document Microsoft submitted to Washington employment officials. There were also five individual contributors and one manager at the Microsoft Research division in the cuts, as well as 10 lawyers and six hardware engineers, the document shows. Microsoft announced plans on Wednesday to eliminate 9,000 jobs, as part of an effort to eliminate redundancy and to encourage employees to focus on more meaningful work by adopting new technologies, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC. The person asked not to be named while discussing private matters. Scores of Microsoft salespeople and video game developers have since come forward on social media to announce their departure. In April, Microsoft said revenue from Xbox content and services grew 8%, trailing overall growth of 13%. In sales, the company parted ways with 16 customer success account management staff members based in Washington, 28 in sales strategy enablement and another five in sales compensation. One Washington-based government affairs worker was also laid off. Microsoft eliminated 17 jobs in cloud solution architecture in the state, according to the document. The company's fastest revenue growth comes from Azure and other cloud services that customers buy based on usage. CEO Satya Nadella has not publicly commented on the layoffs, and Microsoft didn't immediately provide a comment about the cuts in Washington. On a conference call with analysts in April, Microsoft CFO Amy Hood said the company had a "focus on cost efficiencies" during the March quarter.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store