Microsoft is laying off thousands of employees in a shake-up aimed at selling more subscriptions to software applications that can be used on any internet-connected device. Most of the people losing their jobs work in sales and are located outside the U.S. The Redmond, Washington, company confirmed that it began sending the layoff notices Thursday, but declined to provide further specifics except that thousands of sales jobs will be cut. The company is now concentrating on selling recurring subscriptions for software accessible on multiple devices, a rapidly growing trend known as "cloud computing." Meanwhile, revenue from licensing of Microsoft's Windows operating system has been increasing by 5 percent or less in the past three quarters.

Source: ABC News July 06, 2017 18:34 UTC