Microsoft confirms another wave of layoffs

After letting go of 13,000 employees back in July, Microsoft has announced another round of job cuts as part of the firm's planned 18,000 layoff.

Around 3,000 more staff have been let go, ZD Net reported, with the majority of employees being cut across human resources, sales and marketing, IT and finance divisions, it is believed.

Microsoft confirmed the latest cuts in a statement from a spokesperson:

"We've taken another step that will complete almost all the 18,000 reductions announced in July. The reductions happening today are spread across many different business units, and many different countries."

Business Insider has reported Microsoft has culled its entire global advertising sales team, but this has not yet been confirmed by the company.

Sources told the magazine these advertising sales cuts could affect staff across the globe in charge of selling advertising space across Microsoft’s MSN, Bing, Xbox, Outlook, Skype and Windows 8 properties.

Earlier this year, CEO Satya Nadella announced it would cull 18,000 jobs by 2015, following the acquisition of Finnish handset maker, Nokia.

In a letter to all staff, CEO Satya Nadella explained that “the first step to building the right organisation for our ambitions is to realign our workforce” – something which he hinted at in an email to all staff last week, which spoke about creating a new company culture.

More information to come.