Microsoft prepares to layoff thousands of employees worldwide as it gears up to reorganize its sales force. Microsoft, the Washington-based tech company is reportedly planning an overhaul in its sales force in a bid to focus more on areas like artificial intelligence and the cloud. This restructuring is also reported to include merger that involves its enterprise customer unit and one or more of its SME-focused divisions.

Currently, Microsoft has 133,608 employees.

According to a media report, Microsoft had laid off 2,850 job positions in July 2016 out of which 900 comes from the sales group. Moreover, in September of the same year, Judson Althoff, Executive Vice-President of Business Services had announced that his division added 1,000 people specializing in cloud-computing products. 

Since the appointment of Satya Nadella as Microsoft CEO, the company has seen tremendous growth in its cloud and business service operations. According to a media report, Microsoft’s revenue from its Intelligent Cloud rose to 11% from a year earlier to USD 6.8 billion. Additionally, Office consumer products and cloud services revenue rose 15 percent, as the number of Office 365 consumer subscribers increased to 26.2 million. 

A global statement by a Microsoft Corporation spokesperson stated, "Microsoft is implementing changes to better serve our customers and partners. We are taking steps to notify some employees that their jobs are under consideration or that their positions will be eliminated. Like all companies, we evaluate our business on a regular basis. This can result in increased investment in some places and, from time-to-time, re-deployment in others."