IT Sector Continues Retrenchment, Microsoft Lays Off More Than 1,000 Workers

In the last few months, a large number of workers have been laid off in the information technology sector. Microsoft, one of the big IT companies, has laid off more than 1,000 workers from its mixed reality unit. This unit is associated with the HoloLens 2 augmented reality headset.

One of The Information Report It has been reported that layoffs have also been done in the team associated with Microsoft’s cloud software and service rental business. A Microsoft spokesperson has confirmed the layoffs in the mixed reality unit. He said that this layoff will not affect HoloLens 2 and other programs related to augmented reality. For the last few months, Microsoft has reduced its investment in the mixed reality unit. However, the company has said that it is committed to HoloLens.

Earlier, Microsoft had decided to lay off about 1,900 workers from its gaming division. These included workers from Activision Blizzard and Xbox. About eight percent of the staff was laid off from its gaming division. Most of these are in Activision Blizzard. Microsoft had bought Activision Blizzard for about $69 billion to strengthen its position in the video gaming market. Japan’s consumer electronics company Sony holds the first position in this market.

Earlier, many big technology companies, including Alphabet, which runs the internet search engine Google, laid off thousands of workers. Earlier this year, Microsoft’s market capitalization fell to that of iPhone maker Microsoft for the first time in two years. Apple The company’s market capitalization had increased to more than three trillion dollars. This made it the world’s most valued company. However, after this Apple regained its top position. Last year, Microsoft’s share price increased by about 57 percent after taking a big step in generative artificial intelligence by investing in ChatGPT maker OpenAI. Many IT companies are investing in artificial intelligence. Accenture has planned to invest three billion dollars in the data and artificial intelligence vertical. The company will double the number of employees in this vertical.