Microsoft Research will close its Silicon Valley lab as part its latest round of job cuts, the company just confirmed.
About 50 Microsoft Research positions will be cut in Silicon Valley, with some operations consolidating with Microsoft Research labs in Redmond; Cambridge, Mass.; and New York, according to a company spokesman.
Microsoft’s Silicon Valley lab opened in 2001. The company described the move as an “organizational consolidation” designed to streamline operations.
Those cuts are part of 160 jobs being cut by Microsoft in the state of California. The company continues to employ about 2,500 people in Silicon Valley overall, primarily in research-and-development teams for products including Skype, Xbox, Yammer, Office for Mac, Outlook.com and others.
Microsoft Research has over 1,000 scientists focusing on basic research in its labs around the world, and the company says it remains committed to basic research into new areas of technology and more than 60 areas of computer science.
