Microsoft is laying off 10,000 employees

Microsoft said Wednesday that it’s letting go of 10,000 employees through March 31 as the software maker braces for slower revenue growth. The company is taking a $1.2 billion charge in the fiscal second quarter that will result in a negative impact of 12 cents to earnings per share.

Alphabet, Amazon and Salesforce are among the technology companies that have lowered head count in recent weeks. The contraction comes after demand for cloud computing and collaboration services picked up as enterprises, government agencies and schools encouraged remote work to reduce Covid exposure.