Microsoft Axes 18,000 Jobs

Microsoft has announced that it will axe 18,000 jobs over the next year marking the largest single set of redundancies at the company since it started 39 years ago.
The bulk of the cuts will come from Microsoft's recent acquisition of Nokia, with 12,500 professional and factory positions being axed.
It also cancelled the Nokia 'X' Android phones line, which was aimed at capturing emerging markets and only launched in March.
Microsoft plans to complete the process by June 30 2015, with the entire cutbacks looking set to cost the company around $1.6 billion in one-off charges over the next four quarters.
Microsoft currently employs around 127,000 people globally, and has around 3,500 staff in the UK.