Microsoft offers voluntary buyouts to US staff for the first time, over 8,000 eligible
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The news: Microsoft has offered voluntary buyouts to eligible US employees for the first time in its 51-year history, with about 7% of its US workforce, or roughly 8,750 people, qualifying for the program, according to media reports.
Announced Thursday in a memo from chief people officer Amy Coleman first reported by CNBC, the one-time retirement program is open to US workers at senior director level or below whose age and years of service at Microsoft add up to 70 or more, excluding those on sales incentive plans.
Eligible employees will receive details on 7 May, CNBC said.
What they said: “Our hope is that this program gives those eligible the choice to take that next step on their own terms, with generous company support,” Coleman wrote in the memo.
The move follows Microsoft’s dismissal of more than 15,000 employees last year, the FT noted, and comes as the company continues to spend dozens of billions in capital expenditure to build out data centre capacity for AI.
Its shares have slipped roughly 14% this year and were 4.1% lower after the report. Quarterly earnings are due next week.
Microsoft is also decoupling stock awards from cash bonuses to give managers more flexibility to reward high performers, Coleman wrote in the memo, and is simplifying its pay review process from nine options to five, CNBC reported.
Microsoft has not commented publicly.
The sources: CNBC, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, The Financial Times
