The downsizing is believed to affect largely support staff in human resources, finance, sales and marketing and IT.

The cut is part of a series of downsizing, announced in July, with an end target of reducing 18,000 employees from the payroll; with 12,500 of those cuts coming from employees Microsoft acquired as part of its acquisition of US$7.2 billion acquisition of Nokia’s handset and services business, according to a Zdnet report.

The second round of those cuts, totaling about 2,100 employees, hit in September.

A final wave of cuts is expected in early 2015, the report adds, quoting sources said.

In its first major cut back in July, some 13,000 employees were involved, including some but not all of the former Nokia employees.

“Microsoft also is planning to reduce its dependency on “contingent” (non-full-time) employees by 20 percent as part of its realignment,” Zdnet reported.

As of mid-July 2014, Microsoft had more than 125,000 full-time employees on its payroll, a number that included the 25,000 employees it acquired as part of its Nokia acquisition.

As a result of the layoffs, Microsoft officials said the company would incur pre-tax charges of US$1.1 billion to $1.6 billion for severance and related benefits costs and asset-related charges over the next four quarters.

Microsoft signalled its ambition to compete head-on with Apple and Google for the youth market when it announced in September it was buying popular game Minecraft for US$2.5 billion. Analysts say the purchase of Mojang – the Swedish company behind the Minecraft phenomenon is aimed at reaching a demographic vital to the company’s future growth.

The recent exit of former CEO Steve Ballmer from the board also gave analysts comfort that the move will help cement the regime of current CEO Satya Nadella’s. 

ZDnet’s full story on layoffs here