Trump effect? Microsoft slashes jobs... but mostly outside USA

A Microsoft spokesperson said in an email on Thursday that the company is implementing changes to better serve its customers and partners.

"Today, we are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under consideration or that their positions will be eliminated. Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re- deployment in others," the spokesperson told PTI in an emailed statement.

While the spokesperson declined to confirm any specifics, a report in the New York Times said the overhauling of technology giant led by India-born Satya Nadella will cut 3,000 to 4,000 jobs, mostly outside the US. The report said the possible total of job cuts was described by a person familiar with Microsoft's plans, who was not authorised to speak on the record about them.

It added that Microsoft workers were notified on Thursday if their current job was affected. Some of the workers will get other jobs within the software company.

"This is being done mainly to evolve the skill sets we need," Frank Shaw, a Microsoft spokesman, said in the NYT report.

Last week, Microsoft had described a realignment of its sales and marketing arm, which employs about 50,000 people worldwide. In an internal email last week, Judson Althoff, a Microsoft executive vice president, described the reorganisation and its rationale.

He wrote that there was "an enormous $4.5 trillion market opportunity" for Microsoft in the coming years.

Althoff had said the sales and marketing changes were intended to "enable us to align the right resources for the right customer at the right time."

He had identified expanding Microsoft's cloud offerings in data analysis and artificial intelligence, and helping companies in every industry to become digital businesses, using Microsoft tools as key areas of opportunity. Microsoft has 71,000 employees in the US and 121,000 employees around the globe. pti

US tech giant Oracle on Friday announced the opening of its first 'Digital Hub' in the Asia Pacific region here, aimed at providing small and mid size businesses (SMBs) access to cloud solutions and resources they need to power digital transformation.

The new facility, one of the five Digital Hubs set to open in Asia Pacific, highlights Oracle's commitment to better serving the mid size market in the new cloud economy, the company officials said. They said this new Digital Hub here is part of a global network of best practise centres for SMBs that will help them leverage Oracle Cloud solutions to streamline operations, boost innovation and gain a platform for growth.

"What we are doing with our Oracle Digital Hubs is we are trying to get our enterprise grade solutions for all our small and medium sized customers," Oracle India Managing Director Shailender Kumar told reporters here.Two hundred people have been hired by the company in the last six months for the Digital Hub India.