Sources: Microsoft cuts jobs in its Surface, HoloLens, and Xbox units; heavy cuts to the HoloLens hardware team raise questions about the goggles' third version
Microsoft Corp., implementing the layoff of 10,000 workers announced last month, on Thursday cut jobs in units including Surface devices …
BloombergDina Bass
Context & Ripple Effects
Microsoft had already completed a major retreat from its Nokia-era mobile organization through cuts to mobile and sales divisions. The reported reductions extend that pattern of trimming hardware-adjacent teams, but with HoloLens development now explicitly implicated.
The later record shows Xbox again among the units affected by Microsoft's subsequent workforce reductions, making this less an isolated product-team adjustment than a recurring portfolio-prioritization issue.
First-order effects
Surface, HoloLens, and Xbox teams lose personnel as Microsoft executes its broader 10,000-worker layoff plan.
Heavy reductions in the HoloLens hardware group put the third HoloLens version's development path in question.
Second-order effects
Microsoft must concentrate the remaining HoloLens hardware capacity on fewer priorities, increasing the practical trade-off between advancing a new headset and sustaining existing device work.
Xbox is affected alongside Surface and HoloLens, tying consumer-hardware staffing decisions to a broader Microsoft restructuring rather than treating each unit as an independent bet.
Third-order effects
Repeated reductions spanning Nokia-era mobile and later Xbox staffing point to a Microsoft hardware strategy in which device organizations are periodically resized when they no longer fit the company's highest-priority portfolio.
If that pattern persists, specialized hardware programs such as HoloLens will face a higher bar to retain dedicated product-development teams through organizational resets.
The trend: Microsoft's device businesses are being managed as flexible portfolio bets, with staffing repeatedly reallocated away from hardware teams during broader restructurings.
Microsoft Corp., implementing the layoff of 10,000 workers announced last month, on Thursday cut jobs (617 employees notified) in units including Surface devices, HoloLens mixed reality hardware and Xbox via @technology https://www.bloomberg.com/... $MSFT https://twitter.com/...
Surface, HoloLens hardware, Xbox hit by layoffs today at Microsoft (these are part of the 10,000 announced last month which are being implemented through the end of March) https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Microsoft has continued its layoffs on Thursday as part of the 10,000 cuts it announced last month. 617 employees notified, including some working on Mixed Reality (HoloLens), Xbox, and Surface https://www.bloomberg.com/... https://twitter.com/...
If former Hubbers are starting to announce it I feel fine breaking the news. GitHub is laying off 10% of their employees between today and FY23 (I assume this means by July 1st). They are moving to remote-only and not renewing office leases. https://twitter.com/...
The lobby of the Github SF office was a great meetup space and during the boom times they would staff a bartender for meetups. Some great Rust meetups there. https://twitter.com/...
GitHub is “cutting up to 10%” of staff “through the end of FY23” and going remote-only to save money on office space (tip @Techmeme) https://fortune.com/...
On going remote, the CEO told staff they're “seeing very low utilization rates” in their offices. “We are not vacating offices immediately, but will move to close all of our offices as their leases end or as we are operationally able to do so,” he said. https://fortune.com/...
“We announced a number of difficult but necessary decisions and budgetary realignments to both protect the health of our business in the short term and grant us the capacity to invest in our long-term strategy moving forward,” a GitHub spokesperson said. https://fortune.com/...
SCOOP: GitHub is “cutting up to 10%” of staff “through the end of FY23” and going remote-only to save money on office space. You can read GitHub's full message to staff here: https://fortune.com/...