Washington, U.S., October 26 (ANI) — Microsoft has extended buyout offers to approximately 60,000 employees across four countries — India, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada — as the tech giant moves to adjust its global workforce through a voluntary departure program.
In an internal memo sent to employees on Monday, Amy Coleman, executive vice president and chief people officer at Microsoft, announced the introduction of the Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO) for eligible employees within participating organizations. The buyout program targets employees at level 70 and below who are considering a future outside the company.
“Today, we’re introducing a new Voluntary Exit Offer (VEO) to eligible employees within participating organizations. This offer gives eligible employees who may be considering a future outside the company a new choice to make that transition now with support,” Coleman stated in the communication. “It also gives participating organizations another way to adapt their workforce to changing needs.”
The rollout to 60,000 employees across key global hubs in India, the U.S., the U.K. and Canada follows earlier efforts by Microsoft to streamline its organization, building on insights gained from its Voluntary Retirement Program, launched earlier in the year.
According to Coleman, the buyout offer will provide departing employees with financial compensation packages and dedicated career-planning resources. However, the company stressed that the program would not apply universally across all internal teams, with availability determined by operational demands.
“Some organizations are providing the Voluntary Exit Offer, and some are not. Participation varies based on each business’s priorities, customer commitments and workforce needs,” Coleman noted, informing staff that eligible individuals would receive emails containing specific offer details.
Addressing the broader strategic shift represented by the buyout offer, Coleman acknowledged that the program was a new initiative for the company as it seeks to meet changing business demands while providing flexibility for its workforce.
“The Voluntary Exit Offer is new for us. We’ll learn from it,” Coleman wrote. “At the same time, we’ll keep helping people focus on the work that matters most, build new skills and, where it makes sense, find new opportunities across Microsoft. There is no one-size-fits-all approach for every team or every employee.”
Reaffirming her commitment to transparency throughout the voluntary buyout process, Coleman concluded: “My promise is to continue to provide clarity, listen and learn and keep improving. Thank you for everything you continue to do for our customers, Microsoft and for one another.”
Earlier in July, Microsoft announced the elimination of approximately 4,800 positions, representing about 2.1% of its global workforce, as part of a strategic realignment to focus investments on high-priority sectors in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.
The cuts, which took place in July as part of the company’s annual realignment, primarily targeted Microsoft’s Commercial and Xbox organizations. Within the commercial business, the restructuring was based on initiatives to embed engineering experts closer to enterprise customers to accelerate technology deployments.
Meanwhile, the Xbox division underwent a major structural overhaul to position the gaming business for long-term operational success.
To mitigate the impact of the workforce reductions, Microsoft highlighted alternative transition strategies, noting that over the past year, the company had successfully redeployed more than 4,000 employees into new roles. Additionally, management transitioned four gaming studios to new operating structures to preserve intellectual property and ongoing projects, while more than 30% of eligible employees participated in a previous voluntary retirement program.
For employees directly affected by the workforce reductions, Microsoft pledged financial support, career resources and dedicated assistance to help them transition to new opportunities.
This comes after U.S. Vice President JD Vance announced that Microsoft and seven other companies would be barred from seeking green cards for skilled foreign workers amid an investigation into alleged visa fraud.
Microsoft had earlier defended its hiring practices in a statement issued on October 8, saying that the vast majority of its U.S. employees were Americans. The company said that of approximately 6,000 H-1B applications submitted in the previous fiscal year, 80% were intended to extend or change the status of existing employees.
The controversy coincided with President Donald Trump’s presentation of the National Medal of Technology and Innovation to Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, an Indian-origin executive who previously held an H-1B visa.
While criticizing the immigration crackdown, Smith praised the administration’s efforts to address AI safety, including export controls imposed on Anthropic’s AI models. (ANI)
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