Microsoft Fires 85% Of Nigerian Workers

On Thursday Microsoft sacked 85% of the employees in the Nigerian office. 

The Punch reports that 34 of the 40 employees in the Nigerian office of its phone division were sacked 24 hours after the company’s latest Windows 10 was made available in Nigeria and 189 other countries.

According to the source, the downsizing was part of the global decision of Microsoft to streamline its phone division.

Satya Nadella, the executive officer of Microsoft, said in a memo that 7,800 jobs would be cut from the mobile division working on Windows Phone hardware.

The e-mail from Nadella to all employees read: “We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem, including our first-party device family. In the near-term, we’ll run a more effective and focused phone portfolio, while retaining capability for long-term reinvention in mobility. Microsoft was committed to our first-party devices, including phones, but needed to focus its phone efforts in the near term.”

Nadella added that the future prospects for the phone hardware segment were below original expectations due to the new plans.

The CEO also disclosed that in the near future, the company would run a more effective phone portfolio but that doesn’t exactly throw the company’s weight behind the platform.