Microsoft Extends Voluntary Exit Offers to 60,000 Employees
The tech giant is offering buyouts to staff in four countries as it seeks to manage costs while expanding its artificial intelligence infrastructure.
By Patrick Sullivan ·
Microsoft is offering voluntary exit packages to a large portion of its workforce.
The company announced Monday that it is extending these offers to eligible employees in the United States, Canada, India, and the United Kingdom. The initiative covers workers at experience level 70 or below. According to one person familiar with the matter, roughly 60,000 people qualify for the offer. That number represents about 27% of Microsoft's total workforce of 223,000.
The move comes as Microsoft increases spending on data centers to meet high demand for AI computing. The company supplies cloud services to firms like Anthropic and OpenAI. Capital expenditures for the September quarter are expected to exceed $50 billion. That figure is a sharp rise from the $34.9 billion spent in the same period a year earlier. This spending strain has prompted earlier cost management steps. In April, the company launched a voluntary retirement program available to 7% of U.S. employees. In July, it planned layoffs affecting 4,800 workers.
Amy Coleman, Microsoft's executive vice president and chief people officer, addressed the staff in a memo. She stated that the offer allows employees to shape their next chapter. She noted that the plan builds on lessons learned from the earlier retirement program. The company is also shifting its business model to charge clients based on actual AI usage. It has equipped programmers, sellers, and supply chain workers with AI tools to improve results.
Some marketing, sales, and engineering teams have opted out of the buyout, the source said. Employees must decide on the offer by early December. Those who accept will leave the company on Dec. 31. Microsoft has not set a specific target for how many people will take the new package. In comparison, more than 30% of eligible senior director level staff accepted the earlier retirement program.
The company remains financially strong despite the heavy investment. Microsoft reported $19.64 billion in positive free cash flow for the second quarter. That is a 23% year-over-year decrease, though it contrasts with the negative free cash flow reported by rivals Alphabet and Amazon. Microsoft is scheduled to report its third-quarter results on Wednesday.
Source: CNBC
