Microsoft axes 7,800 jobs, writes down Nokia

Seattle

MICROSOFT Corp plans to cut as many as 7,800 jobs and write down about US$7.6 billion on its Nokia phone handset unit, wiping out nearly the entire value of a business that failed to gain market share since it was acquired last year.

The company also will record a restructuring charge of about US$750-850 million for the reorganisation under chief executive officer Satya Nadella, the Redmond, Washington-based company said in a statement on Wednesday. Microsoft had about 120,000 employees at the end of March.