The hammer has fallen on Microsoft's smartphone division.
The company announced on Wednesday morning that it will be laying off 1,850 employees as part of its larger effort to focus on other parts of its business -- essentially ending Microsoft's efforts to make something of its disastrous 2013 acquisition of Nokia.
Microsoft is also claiming the move will cost the company around $950 million, which includes around $200 million in severance payments.
"We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differentiation — with enterprises that value security, manageability and our Continuum capability, and consumers who value the same," said Satya Nadella, chief executive officer of Microsoft, in a press release. "We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud services across all mobile platforms."
Microsoft bought Nokia in September 2013 for $7.2 billion in a move that at the time was billed as a way for the company to compete with Apple and Google in the smartphone market.
Less than two years later, Nadella admitted publicly that the move had been a failure. Microsoft announced 7,800 layoffs and claimed a loss of roughly $7.6 billion.
Under Nadella, Microsoft has been trying to refocus its efforts on areas such as cloud computing while cutting back on other areas like devices and services. Not long after he took over, the company announced layoffs of 18,000 people, many of which came from Nokia.
Moving away from the Nokia deal has been a big part of those efforts. Last week, Microsoft sold off the feature phone business of Nokia to Foxconn for $350 million.
Despite all these movies, Microsoft still may not be done with making smartphones. An email to Microsoft staff from the head of the Windows and devices group and acquired by ArsTechnica, said that the company is "scaling back, but we're not out!"
That could hint at a future Surface phone, based on its successful line of tablets.
Topics Microsoft
