Microsoft Revamps Its Global Sales Team
July 03 2017 - 4:03PM
Dow Jones News
By Jay Greene
Microsoft Corp. reorganized its global sales group Monday to
focus on cloud services, and a person familiar with the plans said
the move will lead to layoffs in the thousands.
The company will target its sales efforts in two areas: large
enterprise customers and small and medium businesses, according to
an email sent to employees by Judson Althoff, executive vice
president who works with partners to spread the adoption of
Microsoft technology. Previously, Microsoft focused on commercial
segments, such as the public sector, startups and specific
industries.
The email didn't mention layoffs. No notifications have gone out
to employees, the person familiar with the plans said. The exact
number of layoffs is unclear, though the cuts will hit staff in
offices around the world, this person said. Microsoft had more than
121,000 employees at the end of March, the last time the company
disclosed its head count.
News of the reorganization and pending layoffs were reported
late last week.
Microsoft often reorganizes at the end of its fiscal year, which
closed Friday. A year ago, a reorganization elevated Mr. Althoff
and Jean-Philippe Courtois, executive vice president in charge of
global sales, marketing and operations, to their current posts.
Microsoft is pressing to beef up its cloud-computing business to
challenge cloud-infrastructure pioneer Amazon.com Inc. While
Microsoft's Azure technology has emerged as the top competitor to
Amazon Web Services, its 2017 sales likely will amount to just a
quarter of its rival's, according to estimates from Deutsche
Bank.
In his email, Mr. Althoff said the reorganization is intended to
"align the right resources for the right customer at the right
time."
The Redmond, Wash., company's sales group has long focused on
selling packaged software and services to corporate buyers, which
hasn't always necessitated specific technical expertise. Mr.
Althoff wrote that he wants to boost "our technical depth and
better align sales and services to solution areas."
With the new structure, Mr. Althoff's role is focused in part on
working with partners such as software vendors and system
integrators to convince customers to use Microsoft technology.
Write to Jay Greene at Jay.Greene@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 03, 2017 15:48 ET (19:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Aug 2024 to Sep 2024
Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2023 to Sep 2024