Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to up to 60,000 employees
Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to as many as 60,000 staff in the US, UK, Canada and India as it seeks to trim its workforce without another round of layoffs.
Microsoft is offering voluntary buyouts to as many as 60,000 employees across the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and India, as the technology group looks to reduce its headcount without carrying out another round of layoffs. The offers were confirmed in a message to staff from Amy Coleman, Microsoft's chief people officer.
In the message, Coleman wrote that the programme gives employees «the opportunity to leave Microsoft with financial support and career planning resources». The company is presenting the scheme as a voluntary alternative to compulsory job cuts, a distinction that matters for a workforce of this size. The wording of the offer frames departure as a personal choice rather than a decision imposed by management.
Sources familiar with the situation told The Verge that staff across much of the company are eligible for the exit offers. Those teams include employees working on AI experiences, Copilot, CoreAI, Windows and Devices, Xbox, finance and human resources. The reporting also indicated that Microsoft's cloud and AI divisions are part of the eligible pool. The full scope of eligibility, and the criteria used to determine it, has not been published.
The move comes as large technology companies continue to rebalance their costs while investing heavily in artificial intelligence. Microsoft has restructured repeatedly in recent years, and buyout programmes of this kind offer a way to lower staffing levels while limiting the disruption that formal redundancy rounds can cause. Describing the initiative as a way to avoid another round of layoffs signals that the company wants to be seen as offering an alternative to forced cuts.
Coverage by other outlets reported the same core figure of up to 60,000 workers. CNBC carried the story under the headline that Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to 60,000 employees, while Bloomberg described the move as a latest cost cut to be offered to 60,000 workers. Sky News highlighted the inclusion of British staff, noting that the offers extend to UK workers and therefore have direct implications for Microsoft's operations in Britain.
Microsoft has not publicly said how many employees it expects to accept the offers, nor set out the financial terms attached to them in each country. Until those details are confirmed, the eventual scale of the reduction in staff remains unclear. The company's stated aim is to give staff a choice about whether to leave, and the decision on each offer rests with the individual employee.
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