Microsoft layoffs continue to take place this week as the company has recently confirmed that it is shutting down the manufacturing facility for Surface Hub in Oregon. A total of 124 jobs have been downsized from Microsoft's Surface Hub headquarters in Wilsonville, Oregon since Tuesday as company officials confirmed the imminent job cut that started last week.
Microsoft acquired the manufacturing facility in 2012 as part of Perceptive Pixel Inc. which has since then become a division of the internet giant responsible for the research and development and production of large multi-touch interfaces and conferencing systems.
Microsoft, however, stressed that it is not letting go of the Surface Hub line as it is moving the production to its Redmond, Washington headquarters in view of merging its Surface manufacturing. "We are consolidating our Surface manufacturing," says a Microsoft spokesperson in a statement. "We remain committed to the Surface Hub product line and will move forward with Surface Hub development in Redmond."
Despite the implemented global headcount reduction, Microsoft is reportedly offering affected employees options to work still within the company through other job positions. Last week, around 3,000 to 4,000 employees at offices in Washington and India have been confirmed laid off. Offices in India, nevertheless, were spared from a large-scale impact of the job cuts.
Microsoft has been yearning to carve a new path in cloud computing ever since Satya Nadella sat down as the company's chief executive officer in 2014. Widely affected by the said move is its sales force. But amid all this, the impact brought so much pressure for Microsoft's information technology organisation as its chief, Jim Dubois, decided to step down from his post. Microsoft later announced that chief digital officer Kurt Delbene will double as the manager of the IT workforce.
In the meantime, Microsoft layoffs are expected to extend for months once the envisioned restructuring will be achieved.
