Microsoft layoffs target marketing teams (report)

Microsoft is moving forward with plans to cut hundreds of workers, according to TechFlash, the Seattle tech blog that predicted layoffs yesterday.

This is reportedly just a routine round of cuts in preparation for the beginning of Microsoft’s next fiscal year. Microsoft employed 88,596 people as of the end of June, and the thousands of cuts the company made last year would certainly dwarf what’s being reported now. Marketing groups across the company are being trimmed “disproportionately,” TechFlash says.

Current and former Microsoft employees appear to have gathered in this comments thread at the Mini-Microsoft blog to kvetch, though the anonymity of the comments means that many of them may be false. There are plenty of complaints about company leadership, focusing specifically on the failure of Microsoft’s Kin phone.

A Microsoft spokesman declined to comment on the reports.