Microsoft to slash 18,000 jobs in 2014

Software giant Microsoft plans to reduce as many as 1,100 jobs in Finland as part of 18,000 global job terminations. About 12,500 of the cuts relate to integrating the unit it bought from Nokia Oyj in April. Labor Minister Lauri Ihalainen said the "least" Microsoft can now do is to ensure the Finns it puts out of work are provided some sort of assistance.

The cuts will include "fewer layers of management" and a flatter organization, according to Nadella's note yesterday, and they will also include rolling Nokia's device's teams into MS, which includes axing the current Nokia X Android-based designs in favor of building low-cost Lumia hardware running Windows Phone.

"We will simplify the way we work to drive greater accountability, become more agile and move faster," Nadella wrote to employees in a memo made public early Thursday. "We plan to have fewer layers of management, both top down and sideways, to accelerate the flow of information and decision making."

The exercise will cost between $1.1bn and $1.6bn over the coming 12 months. The Nokia deal had been set in train by the former Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer as a way to move into mobile devices, an area that has not traditionally been a strong one for Microsoft.

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