Microsoft to announce new round of job cuts

[TOKYO] Microsoft Corp plans to lay off more workers to cut costs amid waning demand for some devices and services, the New York Times reported, citing people briefed on the plan.

The cuts will be announced as early as Wednesday and are in addition to about 18,000 workers the software maker said it was dropping about a year ago, according to the newspaper, which didn't identify the people briefed. The cuts will affect workers in the hardware group among other parts of the company, it said.

The new reductions would come less than two weeks after the company exited the Web display advertising business. Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella has said he's narrowing the focus to personal computing, cloud platforms and business productivity. Since becoming CEO last year, Nadella has been paring the workforce, acquiring mobile and cloud software makers, and cutting units not central to his strategy.

Microsoft said June 30 that it's selling part of the Bing maps unit to car-booking company Uber Technologies Inc. Uber will offer jobs to about 100 Microsoft employees.

AOL Inc. will hire about 1,200 workers when it takes over the Web ad business, the company said last month.

The Redmond, Washington-based company is also stumbling in smartphones as it has failed to turn its operating system into a significant alternative to Google Inc.'s Android and Apple Inc's iOS, the New York Times reported.

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