Microsoft has announced its intention to lay off 10 000 employees. It turned out that they also included employees from the gaming division and members of the team responsible to develop the HoloLens Augmented Reality headset.
The company stated that the cuts would continue through March. CEO Satya Nadella explained that it would cost $1.2Billion. This would be used to pay severance, consolidate rental costs, and reorganize product mix. Bloomberg reports that Microsoft has begun to lay off employees of its HoloLens headset design unit.
Microsoft has been denied a contract worth $400 million to supply 6,900 military-grade versions of its HoloLens headset. The headsets can cause nausea, dizziness, headaches and eye pain in the military. HoloLens is not a company that provides financial data. However, the division was forced to lose its independence last spring and was part of the Surface department. It was then divided into software- and hardware developers.
Other unfortunate moments included the resignation by Alex Kipman (head of HoloLens division), who was accused in misconduct against subordinates and the exodus of staff to companies that had better strategies and could offer higher salaries. Microsoft has yet to indicate specific plans in the direction for the metaverse. However, one thing is certain: the HoloLens Project will take up less space within the company.